DEVELOPMENT & CHARACTER 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



'*&&&■ 



DEVELOPMENT & CHARACTER 



OF 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



BY 

CHARLES HERBERT MOORE 



SECOND EDITION 
REWRITTEN AND ENLARGED 



WITH TEN PLATES IN PHOTOGRAVURE 
AND 242 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. 
1899 

All rights reserved 






^K 

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39451 

Copyright, 1899, 



BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
fWOCOPl&k K&CtlVEB, 




J. S. Cushing it Co. — Berwick & Smith 
Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 






TO 

CHARLES ELIOT NORTON, Litt.D, LL.D. 

professor of tfje ^tstorg of ^rt, (Emeritus 
in f^arbarU SKtttbersttg 

WHOSE FRIENDSHIP THROUGH MANY YEARS 

HAS DONE MUCH TO MAKE POSSIBLE 

WHATEVER OF GOOD MAY BE IN IT 

31 JBetitcate tf)ts 2600k 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 

In the following attempt to set forth the development and 
character of Gothic architecture I use the term " Gothic," 
because it has been established by custom ; and because, 
since it was owing to the infusion of Northern genius that 
the style was brought into being, it is not an entirely inap- 
propriate term. But I use it in a restricted sense ; confining 
it to that style of the Middle Ages which was the fullest 
development of new principles, and most distinctly a mediaeval 
product. In thus restricting the term, I am forced to exclude 
the greater part of what has usually been called Gothic archi- 
tecture, because of its failure to exhibit those qualities of 
design and construction which characterize the distinctive style. 
The general term pointed architecture will suffice to include 
those other classes of monuments which have been hitherto 
erroneously classed with Gothic. The position to which my 
study of the subject has led me differs considerably from that 
which has hitherto been maintained, especially by English 
writers. In the works of the true Gothic style we have a 
new structural system carried out with the strictest logic, and 
with a controlling sense of beauty. They are works of the 
highest art, in which sound mechanical principles serve as 
the secure foundation for the exercise of the poetic imagi- 
nation. It will, doubtless, seem to readers already more or 
less familiar with the subject an extravagant position that 
Gothic architecture, as I define it, was never practised else- 
where than in France. Yet from this position I can see no 
escape. 

The French origin of Gothic is, indeed, now pretty gen- 
erally admitted on the continent of Europe ; but the exclusive 

vii 



viii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 

claim of the architecture of France, in the Middle Ages, to 
be called Gothic has not before, so far as I know, been ad- 
vanced. This being the case, nothing short of a close analy- 
sis and comparison of the different pointed styles of Europe 
could be expected to establish a view so different from that 
which has commonly prevailed. I have, therefore, been im- 
pelled to undertake an examination of the architecture of the 
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and I have endeavoured in 
this essay to illustrate the results of this examination in a 
clear and intelligible manner, and in such a way that, so far 
as might be, the monuments should speak for themselves. 
This examination I have made, for the most part, at first 
hand, except in regard to the architectures of Germany and 
Spain, my acquaintance with which is through books and 
photographs only. 

The main conclusions of the book may, I fear, be unwel- 
come to many English readers who have regarded Gothic 
architecture as a no less English than continental product. 
But though, as I believe, the English claim to any share in 
the original development of Gothic, or to the consideration 
of the pointed architecture of the Island as properly Gothic 
at all, must be abandoned, there is yet abundant reason for 
English satisfaction in English architecture, as one of great 
nobleness and beauty, whose monuments can hardly be too 
highly prized or too zealously protected. And if the French 
monuments are found to be still more admirable, and to be 
the result of an earlier, a more original, and a more com- 
plete development, and even to have furnished the chief in- 
spiration for what is best in England, these facts will, of 
course, be acknowledged so soon as they are seen to be 
established. 

The idea having widely prevailed that Gothic was an art 
common to the nations of the North, each country has in 
turn laid claim to the superiority of its own style. This 
idea, as I endeavour to show, is incorrect, and has arisen 
from a lack of discriminating analysis. The peculiarities of 
pointed design, exhibited by the different countries of Europe, 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION ix 

have hitherto been taken merely as local variations of this 
supposed common style ; and hence it has become usual to 
speak of French Gothic, of English Gothic, and of German 
Gothic, as if the various types of pointed architecture in these 
countries were all equally Gothic. Some writers have, in 
recent times, gone farther, and have claimed for the countries 
to which they have respectively belonged the original invention 
of Gothic. Thus Rickman begins his well-known and valuable 
essay x by saying : " The science of architecture may be con- 
sidered in its most extended application to comprehend build- 
ings of every kind ; but at present we must consider it in one 
more restricted, according to which architecture may be said 
to treat of the planning and erection of edifices, which are 
composed and embellished after two principal modes: (i) the 
antique, or Grecian and Roman ; (2) the English or Gothic." 
Some German writers have maintained with equal assurance 
that to German genius is due the origin and development of 
Gothic art; while the French, though generally manifesting a 
preference for their own style, have perhaps made no greater 
claim than either the English or the Germans to its original 
authorship. 

Thus has a true understanding of the arts of the Middle 
Ages been retarded ; and the disesteem with which, in some 
quarters, since the time of Vasari, the Gothic style has been 
regarded is not unnatural. While the whole pointed archi- 
tecture of Europe is taken together it is not strange that it 
should appear as an art without principles. But so soon as 
the principles of the true style are understood, and comparison 
of the architectures of the different countries is made by the 
light of them, the French origin of Gothic and its exclusive 
existence in France will be readily discerned. 

It has been necessary to devote a considerable portion of 
the book to detailed descriptions of structural forms and ad- 
justments. These may prove tedious to the unprofessional 
reader ; but I have endeavoured to make them as brief as was 

1 "An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of Architecture in England." 



X PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 

consistent with thoroughness, and to express myself, as far as 
possible, in terms that may be generally understood. 

The illustrations to the book have been reproduced either 
on wood or by mechanical process from drawings, the most 
of which were made on the spot, or from photographs, by 
myself. For some of the illustrations of sculpture the draw- 
ings have been made from photographs by my daughter, and 
several of the most elaborate illustrations of entire buildings 
have been drawn from photographs for the engraver by 
Mr. H. W. Brewer of London, the well-known architectural 
draughtsman. 

I am indebted for help in gathering materials, and in 
other ways, to the kindness of many persons ; but most espe- 
cially to M. l'Abbe Miiller of Senlis, to the Very Reverend 
William Butler, Dean of Lincoln, to my architect friends, 
Messrs. A. H. Mackmurdo of London, and W. P. P. Long- 
fellow and C. A. Cummings of Boston, Massachusetts, to my 
friends, Professor George H. Palmer and Mr. Wm. C. Lane 
of Cambridge, Massachusetts (the latter of whom has prepared 
the index), and, above all, to my friend, Professor C. E. Norton 
of Cambridge, Massachusetts, without whose critical revision 
I should hardly have wished to publish the book. 

Cambridge, Mass., 
October, 1889. 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION 

I hope that this new edition of my "Gothic Architecture" 
will be found to show substantial improvement upon the earlier 
one. The book has been almost completely rewritten, and 
much new matter has been added. The wholly new chapter 
on the " Sources of Gothic " fills a gap which needed filling ; 
and the reconstruction and enlargement of the following chap- 
ters will render them,- 1 trust, more interesting as well as more 
useful. 

A considerable time spent in France, in the year 1893, 
gave me opportunity to examine a large number of early 
Gothic buildings, some of which I had before known very 
imperfectly ; and some I had not known at all. The most 
important of these I examined with great thoroughness — 
making measured drawings of their structural systems ; and 
finding in them many things which seem to throw fresh light 
on the early formation of the Gothic style. The most impor- 
tant results of these observations are now incorporated in the 
book. 

To elucidate the text adequately it was necessary to prepare 
many new illustrations ; and in order to secure harmony in the 
general appearance of the pages, the woodcuts of the old edi- 
tion have been replaced by process blocks made from my own 
drawings, and from photographs, or by photogravure plates 
from photographs. Among the wholly new illustrations are 
a few by my daughter, which are indicated by her initials. 
The structural drawings and profiles of mouldings are not in 
all cases made to scale. When my time on the spot was 
limited, and there seemed no imperative need for accurate 
measurements, I trusted my eye. In the list of illustrations it 

xi 



xii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION 

will be found stated whether a given drawing was made to 
scale, or by eye alone. 

To my friend, Professor Norton, I am again indebted for 
many important suggestions, and a complete revision of the 
text ; but he is in no wise responsible for any of my statements. 
I have also again had much valuable help from my friend, Mr. 
W. P. P. Longfellow, and I am indebted to Mr. C. Enlart of 
Paris for his kindness in furnishing me several important 
photographs made by himself. By an inexcusable inadver- 
tence I omitted, in the first edition, to acknowledge my obliga- 
tion to Mr. Wm. Atkinson of Boston for a drawing of the 
clerestory of Salisbury Cathedral, which he took the pains to 
make for me on the spot. A reproduction of this drawing 
reappears in Fig. 119 of the present edition. I am indebted 
to Mr. Louis Pulsifer for valuable notes and measurements 
taken for me at Meaux; and to Miss Grace Reed I owe my 
thanks for the careful manner in which she has prepared the 
new index, which is modelled on the admirable one made for 
the former edition by Mr. Wm. C. Lane, now Librarian of Har- 
vard College. To my publishers also my thanks are due, for 
the liberal spirit in which they have met my wishes in regard 
to the general make-up of both editions of the book. 

Cambridge, Mass., 
May, 1899. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

Preliminary Definition of Gothic 

Incorrect ideas respecting Gothic architecture — Aversion to the pointed style first 
arose in Italy — This style naturally ' unsuited to Italian tastes and traditions — 
Gothic art an outgrowth — The genius of the north modified by that of the 
south — The abandonment of Gothic architecture coincident with the growth 
of artificial conditions of society — The architecture of the Renaissance not a 
popular architecture — Awakening of an antiquarian interest in the pointed 
styles — Growth of a spirit of investigation- — -English and continental miscon- 
ceptions of Gothic — Architectural styles distinguished primarily by structural 
characteristics — The Gothic an organic system — Its evolution out of the 
Romanesque — The Roman constructive system — Early Romanesque develop- 
ments — The structural advantages of the pointed arch — The flying buttress — 
Summary of the structural characteristics of Gothic — The system developed in 
three-aisled buildings — Rudeness not a characteristic of Gothic art — Painting 
and stained glass — Living character of Gothic sculpture — Antique elements in 
Gothic ornamentation — Conventional character of Gothic ornament — Organic 
treatment of constituent elements in Gothic ornament — Architectural fitness 
of Gothic sculpture — Gothic art of short duration- — The cathedral the central 
object of popular interest — The monastic activities in building- — Part taken 
by the laity in the development of the Gothic style — Gothic architecture mainly 
an architecture of churches — Sources of inspiration — Gothic art native to 
France Pages 1-28 



CHAPTER II 

The Sources of Gothic 

Beginning of the evolution of the architecture of the Middle Ages — Quicherat's defi- 
nition of Romanesque — The earliest departures from the principles of Roman 
art made in the East— The architecture of Central Syria — Ancient use of the 
arch on columns in Persia — Byzantine innovations — Conditions of Western 
Europe in the early Middle Ages — The church of Aix-la-Chapelle — Rise and 
character of the Lombard Romanesque — Alternate and uniform types of 
vaulted structures — The Rhenish Romanesque — The Romanesque of Southern 
Gaul — Its unprogressive character — Sporadic types of Romanesque — Mixed 
forms of Romanesque — The Burgundian Romanesque— -The organic system 
here applied to buildings of the uniform type — The Norman Romanesque — 



CONTENTS 

The naves of early Norman structures generally not vaulted — The Normans 
not logical designers — Norman vaulting of naves in the twelfth century — 
Romanesque of the Ile-de-France — Early churches in this province usually 
moderate in scale — Aisle vaulting of the church of Morienval — Rapid progress 
in organic construction after the close of the eleventh century — Fullest develop- 
ment of Romanesque reached in St. Etienne of Beauvais — Definition of the 
term transitional Pages 29-57 



CHAPTER III 

Gothic Construction in France 

I. The Beginnings of Gothic 

Region of the early Gothic movement — Existing buildings the only sources of 
information — First structural use of the pointed arch in the vaulting of the 
apse of Morienval — Early progress of pointed vaulting in the aisle of Bury — 
Vaulting and system of the nave of Bury — Early progress in the vaulting of the" 
apse in Berzy-le-Sec and St. Martin-des-Champs — Remarkable advance shown 
in the church of St. Germer-de-Fly — Composition of the pier and early experi- 
ments in the adjustments of vault ribs adjoining the apse — Retention of Roman- 
esque forms in the triforium of St. Germer — Rudimentary flying buttress system 
of St. Germer — Want of agreement between the interior and the exterior of 
transitional buildings — Structural innovations begin in the interior — Further 
developments in the vaulting of apsidal aisles in St. Maclou of Pontoise and 
St. Denis — The distinctively Gothic arrangement of diagonal ribs in apsidal 
aisle vaulting established in St. Denis — Pointed arch first used in window open- 
ings in St. Denis — Irregularities of form inherent in the Gothic system — But 
these irregularities give an added charm — Forms of vaulting, and adjustment 
of ribs in the apsidal aisles of St. Louis of Poissy, and the Cathedral of Sens — 
Quadripartite vaulting system of the Cathedral of Noyon — Sexpartite system 
of the Cathedral of Se'nlis — Vaulting of the Abbaye-aux-Hommes and that 
of Senlis compared — Great perfection of masonry in Senlis — System of St. 
Germain-des-Pres — Characteristics of the naves of transitional monuments — 
The oblong quadripartite vault the earliest and most prevalent form of Gothic 
vault 58-109 

CHAPTER IV 

Gothic Construction in France 

II. Later Structural Developments 

The quadripartite and sexpartite forms of vaulting used contemporaneously, but in 
the older cathedrals the sexpartite form is the more common — Structural prog- 
ress exhibited in the Cathedral of Paris — Vaulting systems of the choir and nave 
of Paris — Vaulting systems of Mantes, Laon, Bourges, Sens, and Dijon — 
Among these systems the most logical are the earliest — The Cathedral of 
Meaux exhibits an early instance of the uniform type of structure carried out 
with lightness and elegance — The systems of St. Yved of Braisne, Lisieux, and 



CONTENTS XV 

Gisors — Great variety of arrangements and adjustments exhibited by early 
Gothic buildings -y Developments of the pier in the early thirteenth century — 
Its first modifications consequent upon new adjustments of the abacus to its load 
in the ground-story arcade — Structural reason for the stilting of the longitudi- 
nal rib in clerestory vaulting — Vaulting systems of the Cathedral of Chartres, 
St. Pierre of Chartres, Reims, Amiens, St. Denis, and Beauvais — Buttress sys- 
tems of St. Martin of Laon, St. Germain-des-Pres, St. Leu d'Esserent, Noyon, 
Soissons, Amiens, and Reims — Evolution of the pinnacle . Pages 1 10-152 



CHAPTER V 

Gothic Construction in France 

III. Modes of Enclosure and General Forms 

"Modes of enclosure in the clerestory and the aisle — Development of the opening in 
the clerestory of Paris — Adumbrations of the Gothic compound opening in the 
early Christian architecture of Central Syria and in that of Byzantium — Devel- 
opment of tracery in the openings of St. Leu d'Esserent, Soissons, and Reims — 
Entire omission of the wall in Amiens and other developed Gothic buildings — 
Character of the developed Gothic triforium — The developed Gothic apse — 
Adjustments of the rib system in the vaulting of the apse — Illustration of the 
flexibility of the Gothic system in the vaulting of the apsidal aisle of Paris — 
Apsidal chapels — General effect of the combination of apse, apsidal aisle, and 
apsidal chapels — Various forms of the transept — The transept facade — 
Development of the western facade in the Abbaye-aux-Hommes, Senlis, Paris, 
Amiens, Reims, and other buildings — Structural characteristics of the western 
facade — Development of the spire in Morienval, St. Contest, Chamant, Chartres, 
Senlis, and other buildings — General form and aspect of the Gothic edifice — 
Few Gothic structures ever completed according to one original design — Gen- 
eral and spontaneous character of the Gothic movement in France — Mechanical 
invention and artistic feeling equally manifest in Gothic art — Full development 
of Gothic reached by 1220 153-190 

CHAPTER VI 
Pointed Construction in England 

Rare occurrence of the pointed arch and of groin ribs in England before the last 
quarter of the twelfth century — Approach to Gothic principles in the aisle 
vaults of Malmesbury Abbey — Little approach to Gothic character in the 
buildings which immediately follow Malmesbury — Structural systems of Foun- 
tains and Kirkstall — No important advance in England till after the building 
of the choir of Canterbury — Structural system of Canterbury — Structural system 
of Chichester — Structural system of the choir of Lincoln — Comparison of the 
crossing piers of Lincoln and Canterbury — St. Mary, New Shoreham — Byland, 
Whitby, and Rievaulx — The choir of Ripon — General lack of unity of principle 
and rarely any true Gothic character in the later pointed buildings of England — 
Multiplication of ribs in later English vaulting — Composition of English pirrs 



xv i CONTENTS 

— Buttress system and clerestory of the nave of Lincoln — Structural system 
of Salisbury — Structural system of Wells compared with that of the Abbaye-aux- 
Dames — The Presbytery of Lincoln — The nave of Lichfield — Modes of enclos- 
ure — Characteristics of the east end — Transept ends — West fronts — General 
proportions — Towers and spires — Structural features of the chapter-house — 
Vaulting of rare occurrence in the smaller churches of England Pages 191-236 

CHAPTER VII 

Pointed Construction in Germany 

Slowness of Germany to adopt new principles in building — The Cathedral of Speyer 
an almost unmodified Romanesque structure — The vaulting of Worms — The 
system of Bamberg shows little advance — Some Gothic features in the Cathe- 
dral of Magdeburg — Nearer approach to Gothic in the Cathedral of Limburg on 
the Lahn — Its likeness to Noyon — Persistence of Romanesque forms in the 
vaulting of its aisles — System of St. Gereon of Cologne — System of the Lieb- 
fraucnkirche of Trier — Its derivation from St. Yved of Braisne — Impost of the 
Liebfrauenkirche compared with an impost of Braisne — Ponderous character 
of the apse of Heisterbach — St. Kunibert of Cologne — St. Elizabeth of Mar- 
burg — SS. Peter and Paul at Neuweiler — Slow and imperfect apprehension 
of Gothic principles shown in most pointed German buildings of the early 
thirteenth century — Freiburg and Strasburg — Cologne Cathedral — Its deriva- 
tion from Amiens and Beauvais — The perfectly Gothic character of its structural 
system — Unprecedented development of the triforium openings in Cologne — 
Western facades — Transept ends — Towers and spires . . . 237-259 

CHAPTER VIII 
Pointed Construction in Italy 

Persistence of classic traditions in Italy — Introduction of Burgundian pointed archi- 
tecture by the Cistercian order — Character of this architecture — Two types 
of it, both reproduced in Italy — The church of San Galgano compared with 
that of Pontigny — Uncertainty as to the time when native Italians began to use 
the pointed arch — Building activity of the Dominican and Franciscan orders — 
The church of St. Andrea of Vercelli — The church of St. Francis of Assisi — 
Its lack of Gothic character — The church of St. Francis of Bologna — -Its Gothic 
features — Evidence of foreign influence in the foregoing buildings — The church 
of Sta. Maria Novella — The first of the distinctively Italian type — Characteristics 
of this type — The church of Sta. Croce — Peculiar type of pointed architecture 
in the province of Venetia — The church of the Frari, Venice — The church of 
St. Anastasia, Verona- — The Cathedral of Siena — The nave of Orvieto — The 
Cathedral of Florence — The church of San Petronia of Bologna — The nave 
of Lucca — Instance of the Gothic form of pier in Sta. Maria della Pieve at 
Arezzo — -Character of the opening in the pointed architecture of Italy — The 
Cistercian west front — General lack of conformity of the western facade with 
the main body of the building — Character of the east end and the transept ends 

— Lack of Gothic character in the Italian tower — The true spire never con- 
structed in Italy — General form of the Italian pointed building . 260-283 



CONTENTS xvii 

CHAPTER IX 

Pointed Construction in Spain 

No important native architecture in Spain during the early Middle Ages — Introduc- 
tion of pointed architecture, like that of Burgundy and Aquitaine, in the twelfth 
century — The old Cathedral of Salamanca — Peculiarities of this building — ■ 
Likeness of its lantern to early Gothic spires in France — The nave of San Vin- 
cent of Avila- — The church of Santa Maria de Irache — The churches of Lerida, 
Tudela, Tarragona, and Veruela — The church of Las Huelgas of Burgos — No 
signs of local organic development in these buildings — Older modes of building 
practised contemporaneously, as in the barrel-vaulted nave of N. Sra. de la Sierra 
of Segovia — The fully developed Gothic of France reproduced in Spain about 
the second quarter of the thirteenth century — The Cathedral of Burgos — The 
Cathedral of Toledo — The Cathedral of Leon — Likeness of its apse to that of 
Reims — The later pointed buildings of Spain have less Gothic character — 
Other than French influences apparent in them — Modes of enclosure not of a 
strictly Gothic character in Spain at any epoch — Leon an exceptional building 
in this respect — Variety of treatment exhibited in the Spanish west front — 
East ends and transept ends — Towers and spires . . . Pages 284-303 



CHAPTER X 

Gothic Profiles in France 

The profiling of Gothic members a result of functional adaptation, as well as of 
artistic feeling — The mechanical function of the capital not consistently recog- 
nized by Roman and Romanesque builders — Logical innovations in the form 
of the capital wrought by the Byzantine designers — Capitals of Sta. Maria in 
Cosmedin — Imperfect development of the capital in the Lombard Romanesque 

— Capitals of Jumieges — In France, after the eleventh century, an effective 
adjustment of the shaft to the load, by means of a spreading capital, became 
constant — Influence of Byzantine models on the forms of capitals in the early 
Gothic style — The thickness of the abacus largely determined by the spread 
of the capital — The Gothic capital wrought out of one block of stone — The 
Gothic abacus usually square in plan — Profiling of the abacus — The finest types 
of capitals belong to the early Gothic period — Changes in the form of the 
capital consequent on changes in the arch section — The Gothic base a modifica- 
tion of the ancient Attic base — Its plinth more developed on account of struc- 
tural exigencies — The angle spur — The spread of the base usually increased 
as the diameter of the shaft is diminished — -Diminution of the plinth, and 
change of its form, in the later Gothic style — Great elegance of base profiles 
in the best period of Gothic art — Profiles of string-courses — Evolution of the 
drip moulding — Arch mouldings — Change in the arrangement of grouped 
abaci consequent on changes in arch profiles — Evolution of mullion profiles 

— External hood-mouldings ........ 3°4 — 337 



xviii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XI 
Profiles of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries in England 

Superior character of the profiles of early capitals in England — French character 
manifest in capitals of the choir aisle of Lincoln — Anglo-Norman imitations 
of French work — The wreathed type of capital — Extravagant ornamentation 
of later English capitals — The moulded capital — Profiles of bases — String pro- 
files — Frequent use of the corbel-table in the pointed architecture of England — 
Internal string profiles — Profiles of arch mouldings — Profiles of vault ribs — 
Multiplication of members in Anglo-Norman mouldings . . Pages 338-352 

CHAPTER XII 

Profiles of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries in Germany, 
Italy, and Spain 

No departure from Romanesque profiling in Germany during the twelfth century — 
Prevalence of the cushion-shaped capital during the early thirteenth century 

— Gothic type of capital introduced by the second quarter of the thirteenth 
century — Distinctively German type of capital developed thereafter — Charac- 
teristics of this type — The profiling of German bases — Profiles of archivolts, 
vault ribs, and string-courses in Germany — No systematic principles govern the 
profiles of Italian pointed buildings — Prevalence of Gothic profiles in the Cis- 
tercian architecture of Italy — Characteristic types of capitals in Italy — Profiles 
of Italian bases — Archivolts, string-courses, and vault ribs — No important 
native profile developments in Spain ...... 353—359 

CHAPTER XIII 
Gothic Sculpture in France 

Development of mediaeval sculpture in France antecedent to that of other countries 

— Sources of instruction open to the early Gothic sculptors — Survival of Greek 
traditions — New life manifest early in the art of Burgundy — Exceptional condi- 
tions favourable to the growth of sculpture in the Ue-de-France — The sculptures 
of St. Denis and Chartres compared with the sculptures of St. Trophime at Aries 

— The human figure not employed as a caryatid in Gothic architecture- — Statues 
not placed in niches — Relation of sculpture to structural elements in Gothic 
art — Early reliefs of St. Denis and Paris manifest a new spirit — Qualities of 
design, execution, and sentiment in the reliefs of the lintel of Senlis— Elements 
common to Greek and mediaeval sculpture ■ — Superior freedom of the architec- 
tural sculpture of the early thirteenth century — Sculptures of the facade of Paris 

— Points of similarity in the Greek and mediaeval genius — The statue of the 
Virgin in the portal of the north transept of Paris — Statue of the Virgin in the 
south portal of Amiens — Gothic sculpture the first in which expression pre- 
dominates over form — Bodily beauty not, however, ignored by the Cothi 
carvers — Significance of the grotesque element in Gothic art — The artists of 



I 



COA T TENTS xix 

the Ile-de-France the first to emancipate foliate sculpture from old conventions 
— Expression of nature in early foliate carving — Early motives for ornament 
derived from the leafage of springtime — Delicacy of execution in Gothic sculp- 
ture — Monumental fitness always regarded by the early carvers — Excessive 
naturalism of the later Gothic carvings — The quality of breadth in Gothic art — 
The colouring of Gothic sculpture Pages 360-399 

CHAPTER XIV 

Sculpture of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries in England 
and Other Countries 

Rare occurrence of figure sculpture in connection with the pointed architecture of 
England — Norman sculptures of Lincoln and Ely — Exceptional character 
of the sculptures of Wells — Their lack of relation to the structural system — 
Their naturalistic character — Their rudeness of execution — The reliefs of the 
Presbytery of Lincoln — Lack of artistic capacity displayed in Anglo-Norman 
foliate carving — Artificial conventions in such carving — Figure sculpture not 
generally employed as an architectural adjunct in the pointed architecture of 
Germany — Figure sculpture of the Liebfrauenkirche of Trier — Its imperfect 
relation to the architecture — The statues of Strasburg — Characteristics of Ger- 
man foliate sculpture — Late development of figure sculpture in Italy — Italian 
sculpture an individual, rather than a communal, product — Italian sculpture not 
closely related to architecture — Prevalence of relief sculpture in Italy — Two 
elements conspicuous in Italian sculpture — Classic elements in the art of Niccola 
Pisano — Nearer approach to Gothic character in the art of the followers of Nic- 
cola — Character of foliate sculpture in Italy — Imitation of nature a conspicuous 
tendency in this sculpture — No important developments in sculpture ever pro- 
duced in Spain — The French character of the best Spanish carving . 400-414 

CHAPTER XV 
Gothic Painting and Stained Glass in France 

Rare occurrence of figure painting in connection with Gothic architecture — The 
Gothic art of figure painting illustrated in the manuscripts of the twelfth and 
thirteenth centuries — This art not developed beyond primitive symbolic condi- 
tions — Characteristic conventions of Gothic figure painting — Chromatic design 
in Gothic art developed chiefly in stained glass — The inherent conventions and 
. limitations of this art — Its pictorial character not capable of right development 
beyond the conditions which were reached in the Middle Ages — The stained 
glass of St. Denis, Chartres, Paris, and other Gothic buildings . . 415-420 

CHAPTER XVI 
Painting and Stained Glass in England and Other Countries 

No independent developments in painting in England or other countries of Europe 
during the early Middle Ages — Karliest development of painting in Italy pos- 



CONTENTS 

terior to the epoch of Gothic art — Technical character of early Italian painting 
— The monumental character of this art — Its union of pictorial and ornamental 
elements — Its expressional purpose — No peculiar styles of design in stained 
glass were produced in England, Germany, 'Italy, or Spain . Pages 421-423 



CHAPTER XVII 
Concluding Summary 

The witness of the monuments to the French origin of Gothic art borne out by his- 
torical considerations — The different and less favourable conditions for the 
growth of art in England during the Middle Ages — Effects of the Norman 
Conquest — Native artistic activities — Slowness of the Germans to modify their 
Romanesque style — German pointed architecture primarily due to French 
influence — No native development of Gothic art in Italy — Lack of constructive 
character in Italian building- — Conditions in Spain during the Middle Ages 
unfavourable to an original development of art .... 424-428 



LIST OF PLATES 



PLATE PAGE 

I ...... 74 

II . . . . . .138 

III 160 

IV . . . . . .178 

V 179 



PLATE PAGE 

VI 185 

VII 188 

VIII 190 

IX 229 

x 371 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Monolithic Arch and Lintel 

Offset Arch 

Section of a Part of the Flavian Amphitheatre 

Plan of One Bay of the Basilica of Constantine 

Romanesque Pilaster Strip 

Romanesque Buttress .... 

Section of the Abbaye-aux-Hommes, from Ruprich-Robert 

Section of the Abbaye-aux- Dames, from Ruprich-Robert 

Diagram of Round-arched Vault .... 

Diagram of Pointed-arched Vault .... 

Plan of Amiens Cathedral, from Dehio and Von Bezold 

Plan of the Church of Aix-la-Chapelle, from Dehio and Von Bezold 

System of St. Ambrogio of Milan, from photograph . 

Diagram : Alternate and Uniform Systems 

System of the Abbaye-aux-Hommes, from photograph 

Aisle Vault of Morienval, from photograph 

Aisle Vault of St. Etienne, Beauvais, from photograph 

Diagram of Vaulting of Bethesy St. Pierre 

Diagram of Vaulting of Apse of Morienval 

Perspective of Apsidal Vault of Morienval, from photograph 

Diagram of Vault of Bury, drawn and measured on the spot 

Perspective of Vault of Bury, from photograph . 

System of Nave of Bury, from photograph 

Pointed Arch of St. Leu d'Esserent, from photograph 

Vault of Apse of St. Martin des Champs, from photograph 

Plan of Apsidal Vault of St. Germer-de-Fly, drawn and measured on the 

spot 

Perspective of Apsidal Vault of St. Germer, from photograph 

Section of Pier of Apse, St. Germer, drawn and measured on the spot 

Plan of Impost of the Same Pier, drawn and measured on the spot 

High Vaulting Impost of St. Germer, from photograph 

Triforium Gallery of St. Germer, from photograph 

Section of System of St. Germer, drawn and measured on the spot 

Diagram of Vault of Apsidal Aisle of Pontoise, drawn and measured on 

the spot ............ 



PAGE 

I 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



34. Diagram of Vaults of Apsidal Aisle of St. Denis, drawn and measured on 

the spot 

35. Diagram of Vault of Apsidal Aisle of Sens, drawn by eye on the spot 
Tfi. I mpost of Apsidal Aisle of Sens, from photograph 

37. Section of Pier of Senlis, drawn and measured on the spot 

38. System of Senlis, drawn and measured on the spot 

39. Section of System of Senlis, drawn and measured on the spot 

40. Perspective of System of Senlis, drawn by eye on the spot 

41. Diagram of Vault of Apsidal Aisle of Senlis, drawn and measured on the 

spot ......... 

42. Diagram of Vault of Apsidal Aisle of Noyon, from Vitet 

43. Section of System of St. Germain-des-Pres, drawn and measured on the spot 

44. Pier of Gournay, from photograph 

45. System of St. Etienne of Beauvais, from photograph . 

46. Imposts of Vaulting, Choir of Paris, drawn by eye on the spot 

47. Imposts of Vaulting, Nave of Paris, drawn by eye on the spot 

48. Section of Vaulting Shafts, Nave of Paris, drawn by eye 

49. Portion of Westernmost Pier, Mantes, from photograph 

50. Imposts of Vaulting, Laon, drawn by eye .... 

51. Section of System of Meaux, drawn and in part measured on the spot 

52. System of Gisors, from photograph ...... 

53. Impost Plan, Choir of Paris, drawn and measured on the spot 

54. Impost Plan, Nave of Paris, drawn and measured on the spot 

55. Section of Pier, Nave of Paris, drawn and measured on the spot 

56. [mpost Plan of Sixth Pier, Paris, drawn and measured on the spot 

57. Section of Seventh Pier, Paris, drawn and measured on the spot 

58. Impost Plan of Seventh Pier, Paris, drawn and measured on the spot 

59. Impost of Seventh Pier, Paris, drawn by eye on the spot 

60. Section of Reinforced Tier, Laon, drawn by eye 

61. Piers of Soissons and Paris, from photographs 

62. Clerestory of St. Leu d'Esserent, from photograph 

63. Diagram, Section of Vaulting Conoid, etc., drawn by eye 
Clerestory System of Chartres, from photograph 

65. Section of System of St. Pierre, Chartres, drawn and measured on the spot 

66. Clerestory System of Amiens, drawn by eye on the spot . . . . 

67. Westernmost Vaulting Impost of Amiens (plan), drawn by eye on the spot 

68. Westernmost Vaulting Impost of Amiens (perspective), drawn by eye on 

the spot ......... 

69. Section of Pier of Beauvais, drawn and measured on the spot 

70. Vaulting Impost, Aisle of Beauvais, from photograph 

71. Plying Buttress, St. Martin of Laon, drawn by eye on the spot 

72. Flying Buttress, Apse of St. Leu d'Esserent, from photograph 

73. Flying Buttress, Nave of St. Leu d'Esserent, from photograph 

74. Flying Buttress, Nave of Noyon, from photograph 

75. Flying Buttress, Apse of Soissons, from photograph . 



S3 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



FIG. 

76. Flying Buttress, Nave, of Amiens, from photograph . 

77. Flying Buttress, Apse of Reims, from photograph 

78. Clerestory, Nave of Paris, drawn by eye on the spot . 

79. Clerestory "Window, Nave of Paris, drawn by eye on the spot 

80. Clerestory Window, Nave of St. Leu, from photograph 

81. Triple Openings, Qalb-Louzeh, from de Vogue . 

82. Triple Openings, Byzantine Church, Athens, from photograph 

83. Opening, Apse of Reims, from photograph 

84. Plan of Ribs, Vaulting of Apse, St. Germer, drawn by eye on the spot 

85. Plan of Ribs, Vaulting of Apse, Noyon, drawn by eye on the spot 

86. Plan of Ribs, Vaulting of Apse, Paris, drawn by eye on the spot 

87. Plan of Ribs, Vaulting of Apse, Chartres, drawn by eye on the spot 

88. Plan of Ribs, Vaulting of Apse, Amiens, from Viollet-le-Duc . 

89. Interior System, Apse of St. Remi, Reims, from photograph 

90. Exterior of Apse, St. Remi, Reims, from photograph 

91. Diagram of Vaults, Apsidal Aisle, Paris, drawn by eye on the spot 

92. Interior of Apsidal Aisle of St. Leu, from photograph 

93. West Front of Champagne, from photograph . 

94. West Front of the Abbaye-aux-Hommes, from photograph 

95. West Front of Senlis, from photograph 

96. Jointing of Masonry, Senlis, drawn by eye on the spot 

97. Tower of Morienval, from photograph 

98. Tower of St. Contest, from photograph 

99. Spire of Chamant, drawn by eye on the spot 

100. Spire of Chartres, from photograph .... 

101. Plan of Aisle Vault, Malmesbury Abbey, from a drawing by a friend 

102. Interior System, Malmesbury Abbey, from a photograph 

103. Aisle Vault of Fountains Abbey, from Sharpe . 

104. Impost of Fountains, drawn by eye from photograph 

105. Nave System of Kirkstall Abbey, from photograph . 

106. System of Choir of Canterbury, from photograph 

107. Pier of Chichester, from photograph 

108. Plan of Original Apse, Lincoln, from a drawing furnished 

109. Plan of Vault, Choir of Lincoln, drawn by eye on the spot 
no. Clerestory of Choir, Lincoln, from a photograph 
in. Section of Pier, Choir of Lincoln, drawn by eye on the spot 

112. Section of System, Choir of Lincoln, drawn and measured on the spot 

113. Piers of Lincoln and Canterbury, from photographs . 

114. Aisle Vault of Peterborough, from photograph 

115. Plan of Vault, Nave of Lincoln, drawn by eye on the spot 

116. Vaulting Conoid, Nave of Lincoln, from photograph 

117. Pier Sections, Nave of Lincoln, drawn by eye on the spot 

118. Exterior of Clerestory, Nave of Lincoln, from photograph 

119. Vaulting Conoid, Salisbury, from a drawing by Mr. William Atkinson 

120. System of Wells Cathedral, from a photograph .... 



bv a friend 



l 5 l 
J 5 2 
*54 
155 

156 
*57 
157 
158 
162 
162 
163 
164 
165 
167 
168 
169 
171 
174 
r 75 
176 
177 

183 
184 
185 
186 
192 

i93 
194 

J 95 
196 
197 
199 
202 
203 
204 
205 
206 
207 
212 
213 
214 
215 
216 
217 
219 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



the spot 



FIG. 

121. System of the Abbaye-aux-Dames, from a photograph 

122. Plan of Impost, Presbytery of Lincoln, drawn by eye 

123. Clerestory of Presbytery, Lincoln, from a photograph 

124. Exterior of Clerestory, Presbytery of Lincoln, from a photograph 

125. Central Tower of Lincoln, from a photograph . 

126. System of Bamberg, from a photograph 

127. System of Limburg, from a photograph 

128. Impost of Liebfrauenkirche, Trier, from a photograph 

129. Impost of Braisne, from a photograph 

130. Section of St. Elizabeth, Marburg, from Forster 

131. Section of Poitiers, from Viollet-le-Duc 

132. Spire of St. Elizabeth, Marburg, from photograph 

133. System of San Galgano, from a photograph 

134. System of Sta. Maria Novella, from a photograph 

135. Section of System of Sta. Maria Novella, drawn by eye on 

136. Section of Pier of Florence, drawn by eye on the spot 

137. Elevation of Pier of Florence, from a photograph 

138. Tower of Sta. Maria Novella, from a photograph 

139. Tower of the Scaligeri, Verona, from a photograph 

140. System of Salamanca, from a photograph . 

141. Lantern of Salamanca, from a photograph 

142. Impost of St. Vincent of Avila, from a photograph 

143. Flying Buttress of Burgos, from Street 

144. Capital of St. Sophia, Constantinople, from a photog 

145. Capital of Sta. Maria in Cosmedin, from a photograph 

146. Capital of Jumieges, from a photograph . 

147. Capital of Apse of Senlis, drawn on the spot . 

148. Capital of Apse of Noyon, drawn on the spot . 

149. Capital of Triforium of Choir, Paris, drawn on the spot 

150. Capital of Triforium of Nave, Paris, drawn on the spot 

151. Capital of Triforium of Laon, drawn from a cast 

152. Profiles of Abaci, drawn by eye on the spot 

153. Abacus Profiles, drawn by eye 

154. Capital of Apsidal Chapel, Amiens, drawn from photograph by M 

Moore 

155. Base of St. Sophia, Constantinople, from a photograph 

156. Profile of Base, St. Etienne, Beauvais, drawn and measured on the spot 

157. Profile of Base, St. Martin des Champs, drawn and measured on the spot 

158. Profile of Base, Senlis, drawn and measured on the spot . 

159. Profile of Base, St. Germer-de-Fly, drawn and measured on the spot 

160. Perspective and Profile of Base, Choir of Paris, drawn and measured on 

the spot ......... 

161. Griffe, Nave of Reims, drawn from a cast .... 

162. Profile of Base, Triforium of Paris, drawn by eye on the spot 

163. Perspective of Base, Triforium of Paris, drawn on the spot 



4 >h 



E. H 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



164. 
165. 

166. 
167. 
168. 
169. 
170. 
171. 
172. 

*73- 

174. 

175- 
176. 
177. 
178. 
179. 
180. 
181. 
182. 
183. 
184. 
185. 
186. 
187. 



190. 
191. 
192. 

193- 

194. 

195- 
196. 
197. 
198. 
199. 
200. 
201. 



204. 
205. 
206. 
207. 
208. 



Profile of Base, Choir of Chartres, drawn by eye on the spot 

Base, Choir of Soissons, drawn on the spot 

Base cf Westernmost Pier, Paris, drawn on the spot 

Profile of Base, Nave of Amiens, drawn and measured on the spot 

String Profiles, Nogent-les-Vierges, drawn by eye on the spot 

String Profiles, Creil and Senlis, drawn by eye on the spot 

String Profiles, St. Pierre, Chartres, and Amiens, drawn by eye 

Cornice of Facade of Paris, drawn from a photograph 

Profiles of Set-offs, St. Germer, drawn by eye on the spot 

Profiles of Internal Strings, drawn by eye 

Diagram . ......... 

Profile of Interior String, Paris, drawn by eye on the spot 

Profile of Interior String, Amiens, drawn from a photograph 

Rib Profiles, drawn by eye on the spot 

Rib Profiles, drawn by eye on the spot 

Rib Profiles, drawn by eye on the spot 

Rib Profiles, drawn by eye on the spot 

Rib Profiles, drawn by eye on the spot 

Impost Plan, Senlis, drawn by eye on the spot . 

Impost Plan, Amiens, drawn by eye on the spot 

Mullion profiles, drawn by eye .... 

Profiles of Hood-mouldings, drawn by eye 

Capital, East Transept of Lincoln, drawn on the spot 

Capital, Choir of Lincoln, drawn on the spot . 

Capital, West Transept, Lincoln, drawn on the spot 

Wreathed Capital, Lincoln, drawn on the spot . 

Grouped Capital of Choir-screen, Lincoln, drawn on 

Capital of Wells, drawn from photograph, by Miss E 

Moulded Capital, Beverley, drawn from photograph 

Profiles of Abaci, drawn by eye on the spot 

Base Profiles, drawn and measured on the spot 

Base Profiles, drawn by eye on the spot . 

Base Profiles, drawn by eye on the spot 

Base, Porch of Weils, drawn by eye on the spot 

String Profiles, drawn by eye on the spot . 

Profile of String, Salisbury, drawn by eye on the spot 

Round Impost, Southwell, from photograph 

Archivolt Profile, Malmesbury, drawn by eye from photograph 

Archivolt Profile, Lincoln, drawn by eye on the spot 

Profile of Diagonal Rib, Lincoln, drawn by eye on the spot 

Profile of Transverse Rib, Lisieux, drawn by eye on the spot 

Capital of Magdeburg, from Forster ..... 

Capital of Heisterbach, drawn from a photograph 
Capital of Cologne, from Boisseree ..... 

Archivolt Profile, Cologne, from Boisseree 



the spot 
H. Moore 



the 



spot 



PAGE 
324 
324 
325 
326 

327 
327 
328 
328 
328 
329 
329 
329 
329 
330 
331 
332 

333 
334 
334 
334 
335 
336 
339 
340 
34i 
342 
343 
344 
345 
345 
346 
346 
347 
348 
348 
349 
349 
35° 
35° 
351 
35i 
353 
353 
354 
355 



xxviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIG. PAGE 

209. Capital of Sta. Maria Novella, from photograph ..... 356 

210. Italian Base Profiles, drawn by eye on the spot 358 

211. Profile of Diagonal Rib, Florence, drawn by eye on the spot . . . 359 

212. Figure of Angel from Byzantine Ms., from the original .... 361 

213. Figures from Byzantine Ms., from the original ...... 361 

214. Relief, Notre-Dame du Port, from photograph ...... 363 

215. Head of Apollo, drawn from photograph, by Miss E. H. Moore . . 364 

216. Head from Moissac, drawn from photograph, by Miss E. H. Moore . . 365 

217. Statue of St. Trophime, drawn from a photograph ..... 366 

218. Statue of St. Denis, drawn from a photograph 367 

219. Statue of Chartres, drawn from a photograph 368 

220. Relief, Portal of the Virgin, Paris, from a photograph .... 374 

221. Statue of the Virgin, Portal of North Transept, Paris, from a photograph 378 

222. Relief, Portal of Seniis, drawn by Miss E. H. Moore from a photograph 382 

223. Relief, Portal of the Virgin, Paris, drawn by Miss E. H. Moore from a 

photograph 384 

224. Leafage from a Capital, Vezelay, from a photograph .... 385 

225. Sculpture of a Capital, Seniis, drawn on the spot ..... 386 

226. Leafage of a Capital, Seniis, drawn on the spot ..... 386 

227. Capital, Abbaye-aux-Dames, drawn from a photograph, by Miss E. H. Moore 387 

228. Capital of the Triforium of Seniis, drawn on the spot .... 388 

229. Crockets from the Triforium of Paris, drawn on the spot .... 389 

230. Capital of the Chapel of the Catechists, Paris, drawn on the spot . . 392 

231. Leafage from the Fagade of Paris, drawn from a photograph, by Miss E. 

H. Moore . ........... 393 

232. Leafage of the Interior of Amiens, drawn from a photograph, by Miss E. 

II. Moore ............ 394 

233. Leafage of the Exterior of Amiens, drawn from a photograph, by Miss E. 

H. Moore 394 

234. Leafage from Noyon, drawn from a photograph, by Miss E. H. Moore . 395 

235. Leafage of the Porte Rouge, Paris, drawn from a photograph . . . 397 

236. Relief of the Facade of Lincoln, drawn on the spot 401 

237. Statue of the Facade of Wells, drawn from a photograph .... 402 

238. Design from North Transept of Southwell, drawn on the spot . . . 405 

239. Leafage of Lincoln, drawn on the spot 406 

240. Capital of Triforium, Lincoln, drawn on the spot ..... 407 

241. Illumination of Thirteenth Century, drawn from the original Ms. . . 416 

242. Figure from the Jesse Window of Chartres ...... 419 



CHAPTER I 

PRELIMINARY DEFINITION OF GOTHIC 

Since the decline of Gothic architecture the ideas which have 
prevailed respecting it have been for the most part confused 
and incorrect. Until recently this art has received little serious 
attention. The very name Gothic originated in a spirit of con- 
tempt which has naturally precluded any disposition to study, 
as it deserves, this splendid manifestation of human genius. The 
architects and amateurs of the schools of Vignola and Palladio 
in Italy, where the revival of taste for antique art had led to 
an abandonment of mediaeval forms of design, could not be 
expected to admire anything so far removed from the spirit 
of the art which was in fashion during the sixteenth century. 
The term maniera Tedesca, which they applied to such Gothic 
as they knew (supposing Gothic art to be of German origin, 
and their own pointed style to be an importation from Ger- 
many), was a term of reproach, and the art was regarded 
by them as barbaric, and without principles, in comparison 
with their Vitruvian orders. That this distaste for pointed 
architecture should be felt in Italy was not unnatural, for it was 
really foreign to the Italian genius and Italian traditions. It 
had been adopted as a fashion, and the imperfect apprehension 
of Gothic, manifested in such use as Italian builders made of 
the pointed arch, shows how little it was suited to their needs. 
The pointed architecture of Italy is, indeed, fundamentally 
different from the Gothic of the North. It is impossible for a 
people possessed of an art which is an outgrowth of their own 
wants and tastes, and hence proper to them, to adopt and 
practise rationally another art which has grown out of different 
needs and predilections. The Greek and Roman types of build- 
ing were the natural inheritance of the Italians, were suited to 
their climate, and supplied all the demands alike of convenience 
and of taste. 



2 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

On the north and west of the Alps the case was different. 
Here the traditions of classic art were not, in the same sense, 
an inheritance. The ancient forms of building had here been 
an importation, they had never been wholly understood, and 
they were not well adapted to the conditions of the climate or to 
the genius of the race. On the other hand, the Gothic style, 
which was gradually evolved here, was a natural expression of 
the peculiar artistic temperament, needs, and resources of the 
people who produced it ; and it was thus as well suited to them 
as the classic styles had been to the people of the South. 

Yet here, too, at length, a distaste for Gothic set in, follow- 
ing the more natural Italian reaction, though the change did vio- 
lence to much that in architecture was proper to the Northern 
temperament and Northern needs. The conditions which led 
to this change of taste had their root in the artificial state of 
society which the whole of Europe, but especially France, had 
reached by the end of the fifteenth century, — a state of society 
in which pleasurable indulgence and display of private wealth 
had become the chief animating motives of an art that found 
its main expression in sumptuous and luxurious private dwell- 
ings and their adornments. In the immediately preceding 
centuries private dwellings, even those of the rich, had been 
comparatively unpretentious and plain, while the church edifice, 
the great centre of social and communal interest, and the 
product of the joint energy and enthusiasm of all classes, had 
been enriched by generous expenditure of toil and of public 
and private treasure ; but now it was the dwellings of the rich 
that chiefly demanded the services of art. The ambition of 
Charles VIII to rival the magnificence of Italian palatial build- 
ing marks the early stages of a movement which, gathering 
force under Francis I and stimulated by the genius of Lescot 
and De L'Orme, reached its height in the grandiose architecture 
of the reign of Louis XIV. 

The taste for the Neo-classic style thus introduced was long 
confined to the upper classes. This architecture could not soon 
become an architecture of the people, and the cities and the 
church held out long against it. But with the growth of 
artificial conditions the new fashion at length prevailed, and 
under the influences that supervened it is not strange that the 
Gothic style began to be regarded with aversion, and its monu- 



1 DEFINITION OF GOTHIC 3 

ments to be not only despised and neglected, but often shame- 
fully disfigured and sometimes even destroyed. 

In England the taste for the pseudo-classic orders, fostered 
by the genius of such men as Inigo Jones and Wren, was not 
less hostile to Gothic. Any feeling for mediaeval forms which 
had lingered on through the Elizabethan period was soon effec- 
tually quenched. Germany, though not quick to accept the 
Renaissance style, was also at length conquered by the growing 
taste for it. Everywhere some form, though often a travesty, 
of the revived classic art prevailed. Gothic art became every- 
where extinct. 

Fashion began, however, after a while again to change. In 
the course of the eighteenth century an antiquarian interest in 
pointed architecture was awakened in England, and received 
a considerable stimulus from the zealous but ignorant advocacy 
of Horace Walpole. The attention of amateurs began to be 
directed towards existing monuments, and the publication of 
Carter's volumes 1 with measured drawings, followed before long 
by the works of Britton and Pugin, 2 created an extensive, though 
not a discriminating, taste for the long-abandoned pointed style. 
So undiscriminating, indeed, was this new interest that it long 
remained unproductive of good results. No just notion of the 
nature of Gothic was anywhere entertained. That it embodied 
principles beyond those which were apparent to a superficial 
view nobody yet imagined. The modifications and transforma- 
tions which pointed architecture had undergone at different 
periods of its history were but partially recognized, and their 
significance was not understood. No correct historical or 
structural classifications had been made, and attention was, for 
the most part, directed to the later and least excellent varie- 
ties of the style. Before there could be progress towards a 
truer understanding of mediaeval buildings, it was necessary that 
the different forms which they had assumed should be examined 
and classified. 

1 John Carter, The Ancient Architecture of England (London, 1 795-1816, 

2 vols., fo.); Collection of Ancient Buildings in England (London, 1786, 6 vols., 
321110). 

2 John Britton, Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain (London, 1S05-1S26, 

5 vols., 4to) and Cathedral Antiquities of Great Britain (London, 1S14-1S32, 

6 vols.,4to). Augustus Pugin, Specimens of Gothic Architecture (London, 1S21-1823, 
2 vols., 4to) and Examples of Gothic Architecture (London, 1831-183S, 3 vols., 4to). 



4 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

At length this progress began. In the year 1817 appeared 
Rickman's first essay — An Attempt to discriminate the Styles of 
Architecture in England. This book did much to clear up the 
confusion that had prevailed by pointing out that the differences 
of style which appeared in the English monuments might be 
broadly divided into three groups belonging, respectively, to 
three successive periods of construction. Although Rickman's 
work was naturally imperfect and inadequate, its classifications 
were mainly correct, and it has served as a substantial basis for 
all subsequent study of the pointed architecture of England. 
So good was it, indeed, that the many other treatises which soon 
after appeared did little more than extend the field by bringing 
a larger number of buildings into notice. Professors Whewell 
and Willis, however, ought to be mentioned as learned and able 
investigators who must always command the respect of students 
of architecture. Whewell, in his Notes on German Churches 1 
(pp. 8-9), showed that the pointed arch had been introduced on 
account of its structural advantages in vaulting, and did much 
to systematize methods of observation ; and Willis, in his Archi- 
tecture of the Middle Ages 2 and in his Essay on Vaulting? has 
given a more thorough analysis of constructive systems than 
any other English writer, and has rendered acknowledged ser- 
vice to some of the most able writers of the continent. But 
neither of these authors succeeded in bringing out with clear- 
ness the essential principles of Gothic. 

In the year 185 1 was published Sharpe's Seven Periods of 
Church Architecture? which showed that Rickman's division of 
styles might be subdivided. But beyond this Sharpe threw 
little light on the subject, and he did nothing to invalidate the 
general correctness of Rickman's work. As regards the true 
nature of Gothic, Sharpe himself, though a writer of much merit, 
did not possess a true conception. For he says (p. 4), referring 
to the commonly received distinction between Romanesque and 

1 The Rev. W. Whewell, B.D., Architectural Notes on German Churches, etc. 
Cambridge, 1842. 

2 R. Willis, M.A., F.R.S., Remarks on the Architecture of the Middle Ages. 
Cambridge, 1835. 

3 Published in the Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 
vol. i. part ii. 1842. 

4 Edmund Sharpe, M.A., The Seven Periods of English Church Architecture. 
London, 1851. 






i DEFINITION OF GOTHIC 5 

Gothic (which is merely that the one employs the round, and 
the other the pointed arch), that he has " little hesitation in 
adopting this primary division as the groundwork" of his sys- 
tem. And in his various other works, excellent as they are in 
many ways, he everywhere treats the subject of Gothic design 
as consisting primarily in this and other minor peculiarities. Of 
the considerable numbers of more recent English writers on 
Gothic art, few, if any, have contributed towards a more just 
apprehension of its principles. They generally have under- 
stood by Gothic merely a style of building in which pointed 
arches take the place of round ones, and mouldings and o^b-er 
small members are treated in a peculiar way. Hence, "m dis- 
cussing the evolution of Gothic, English writers, with hardly an 
exception, confine themselves to a consideration of these sub- 
ordinate matters. Even Sir Gilbert Scott, who has shown 
■more insight than most others, fails to lay hold of the ruling 
principles of the art and to exhibit them with clearness. And 
his son, Mr. G. G. Scott, even describes 1 some of these prin- 
ciples incidentally without emphasizing them as fundamental. 

A recent Belgian writer, regarding the subject from the Eng- 
lish standpoint, has published a book 2 in which it is maintained 
that Gothic consists in a purely ornamental transformation of the 
component members of a building. These members, capitals, 
bases, mouldings, etc., he examines without special reference to 
their functional offices and adjustments, and considers that the 
more they differ in ornamental character from the corresponding 
members in the preceding styles, the more Gothic they are. For 
standards of Gothic form he points to those buildings in which 
such details depart the most widely from Romanesque types, 
refusing to recognize as Gothic monuments in which the older 
ornamental elements are retained, or are but slightly modified. 

In France the revival of interest in Gothic seems to have 
derived its impulse in part from an influence transmitted from 
England. One of the earliest French writers to show an appre- 
ciation of the subject was M. de Caumont, whose voluminous 
writings 3 did much to stimulate interest and research in France. 

1 History of English Church Architecture, 1881, p. 141. 

2 Jean-Francois Coifs, la Filiation Genealogique de toittes les Ecoles Gothiques. 
Paris, 18S2. 

:! A. de Caumont, Abecedaire d'Arc/icologie (3 vols. 8vo. Caen, 1S41) and nu- 
merous other works. 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 




B 



M. de Caumont, however, equally with the authors already named, 
misconceived the nature of Gothic art. Thus, in treating of the 

transitional works, he says : 

" La revolution architecto- 

nique qui s'operait durant la 

periode transitionelle ne con- 

sistait pas seulement dans 

la substitution de l'ogive au 

plein-cintre, maisaussi, comme 

nous le demontrerons, dans 

l'adoption d'un systeme nouveau de moulures pour la decoration, 

et dans l'abandon de la plupart des ornaments usites aux XP et 

XII e siecles." 1 

These conceptions of the nature of Gothic art are inadequate. 
It is only by the investigation of its essential principles that 
any art can be understood. In architecture the principles of con- 
struction are fundamental. The forms of its individual mem- 
bers, apart from their functional offices and relations, are not 
enough to enable us to apprehend the distinctive characteristics 
of a style. Round arches instead of straight beams may, for 
instance, be used to bridge the spaces between the upright sup- 
ports of a building without 
producing a result which would 
constitute a fundamental dif- 
ference of architectural style. 
For an arch may be cut out 
of a single stone, see Fig. i, 
A, as was frequently done in 
the ancient churches of Cen- 
tral Syria. 2 The constructive 
principle in such cases is, of 
course, that of the plain lintel 
just as much as at B in the 

same figure. Or the arch may be built up with horizontal 
courses of smaller stones as in the so-called offset arch (Fig. 2), 

1 Architecture Religieuse, p. 387. 

2 Cf. Le Cte. de Vogue, U Architecture civile et religieuse du I eT au VII* Steele 
dans la Syrie Centrale. Paris, 1865-1877. The Basilica of Mondjelia, described on 
p. 98 of this book, presents such monolithic arches in its nave arcades. At first 
glance it would seem to be an arched construction. It is not until we scrutinize the 
jointing of the masonry that the trabeate principle of the structure is understood. 




I DEFINITION OF GOTHIC 7 

where the constructive principle is still the same as that of the 
lintel. It is not until the arch is built out of separate stones 
cut into the shapes of zwussoirs, causing it to exert lateral 
thrusts which require to be met by some opposing force, that 
we have a new constructive principle, the systematic carrying 
out of which constitutes in architecture a new style. 

In a secondary sense it may, indeed, be admissible to speak 
of differences of style where there are no important differences 
of constructive principle. Egyptian architecture is in this sense 
a style different from Greek, the arched Roman is a style differ- 
ent from Romanesque; while the Romanesque itself may be 
broadly divided into two main styles, — the Eastern and Western, 
— and, again, the Romanesque of Western Europe may be said 
to be of one variety in North Italy, of another in Southern Gaul, 
of another in Normandy and England, and of still another in the 
Ile-de-France. So of pointed architecture it may be said that 
there are differences of style, some of which approach more 
nearly to, and some depart more widely from, that distinctive 
type which differs fundamentally from all others and is alone 
properly called Gothic. But it is only in a secondary sense 
that it is correct to speak thus of styles where no essential 
structural differences of design appear. Pointed architecture 
is not necessarily, in a primary sense, a style different from 
that which is round arched ; for pointed arches do not in them- 
selves differ materially in structural principle (though they do 
in structural adaptability) from round ones. Gothic archi- 
tecture differs from arched Roman and Romanesque far more 
fundamentally than by the use of pointed arches in the place 
of round arches, or by the substitution of one type of ornament 
for another. 

In the midst of such imperfect apprehension as has thus far 
generally prevailed, and as preliminary to what is to follow, on 
the nature and origin of Gothic art, it may be well for us to 
seek at once a clear and unmistakable definition of it. Such a 
definition is afforded in the monumental work of M. Viollet- 
le-Duc, the Dictionnaire Raisonni de V Architecture Francaise. 
He has therein given a profound and exhaustive illustration of 
Gothic. He has shown that this architecture consists primarily 
in a peculiar structural system, — a system which was a gradual 
evolution out of the arched Roman through the Romanesque, — 



8 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

and that its distinctive characteristic is that the whole scheme 
of the building is determined by, and its whole strength is made 
to reside in, a finely organized and frankly confessed framework 
rather than in walls. This framework, made up of piers, arches, 
and buttresses, is freed from every unnecessary encumbrance of 
wall, and is rendered as light in all its parts as is compatible 
with strength — the stability of the fabric depending not upon 
inert massiveness (exceptin the, outermost abutments), but upon 
a logical adjustment of active parts whose opposing forces 
neutralize each other and produce a perfect equilibrium. It is 
a system of balanced thrusts in contradistinction to the ancient 
system of inert stability. Gothic architecture is such a system 
carried out in a finely artistic spirit. It is, indeed, much more 
than this, but it is this primarily and always. So fundamental 
and far-reaching is this peculiar mode of construction as the 
distinctive principle of Gothic, that it may be taken as a rule 
that wherever we find ^developed there we have a Gothic build- 
ing, even though the ornamental elements connected with it may 
retain many of the Romanesque characteristics; while, on the 
other hand, wherever a framework maintained on the princi- 
ple of thrust and counterthrust is wanting, there we have not 
Gothic, however freely the ornamental elements may differ from 
those of the Romanesque. M. Viollet-le-Duc has not, indeed, 
couched his analysis of Gothic in the precise form of a defini- 
tion ; nor has he made such a comparative study of the various 
types of pointed architecture that were developed in the dif- 
ferent countries of Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth 
centuries as to exhibit the essential difference between the true 
Gothic and the imperfect imitations of it. But he gives the 
materials for the definition, and his work suggests the compari- 
son. 

The evolution of the Gothic system was gradual, and the 
final results were unforeseen when the first steps were takers) 
This will be manifest when we come to examine the variously 
experimental monuments in which this evolution was working. 
The first steps were taken early. Indeed, as we shall presently 
see, the incipient elements of Gothic reach far back into the 
early Middle Ages. But the earliest development of ribbed 
vaulting, together with a functional grouping of supports, may 
be taken as the tangible beginning. This is first met with 



I DEFINITION OF' GOTHIC g 

in the Lombard churches 1 of Northern Italy, dating from the 
early part of the eleventh century. The innovations here made, 
though destined to remain unfruitful in their original locality, 
were apparently those from which the Romanesque builders of 
Northern France derived a large share of their early inspiration. 
In addition to the evidence of this which the monuments them- 
selves furnish, we have record of the migration of Lombard 
workmen into Gaul even before the eleventh century. 2 The 
rudimentary principles of organic structure thus transmitted to 
France were, as we shall presently see, there rapidly developed, 
so that from St. Ambrogio of Milan to the Cathedral of Amiens 
a logical series of progressive changes may be traced. 

-Gothic architecture is thus in no -sense' an independent, 
though it is a distinct, style. And hence it is that the finest 
Gothic buildings retain many of the Romanesque elements, 
though in a modified and improved form. It is a mistake to 
suppose that the survival of these elements marks a building as 
wanting in Gothic character. On the contrary, such elements 
are proper to Gothic, which is an art not only derived from 
Romanesque, but which is Romanesque completely developed. 
Nearly every constructive member of a Gothic building exists 
in a rudimentary form in a vaulted Romanesque structure. 

1 By Lombard churches it is not necessary to understand churches erected by 
the Lombard invaders during their actual rule in Italy. The existence, at the 
present time, of architectural monuments wrought by the hands of men of the origi- 
nal Lombard race seems to have been clearly disproved. The designation Lom- 
bard, as applied to the churches of the eleventh century in North Italy, has been 
therefore objected to. But the style of these churches is unquestionably a result of 
the foreign influence, though the date of their erection was subsequent to the Lom- 
bard occupation. The conclusion reached by the Count di S. Quintino (Dei/' architet- 
tura italiana al tempo dei Longobardi, Brescia, 1829), and others who have treated 
the subject, that the architecture in question is derived wholly from Roman and 
Byzantine sources is certainly incorrect; for nowhere in either Roman or Byzantine 
art are there any precedents for the peculiar features and structural combinations 
which distinguish such architectural systems as those of St. Ambrogio of Milan and 
San Michele of Pavia. The fact would seem to be that the remarkable innovations 
embodied in these monuments originated in an influence derived from the vigorous 
Northern genius which was strong enough to outlast the period of the actual Lom- 
bard domination. After more than two hundred years of ascendency the influence 
of such a people could hardly fail to leave an impress that would long endure and, 
under favouring conditions, lead to the production of forms of art differing widely 
from those of the original native race. 

2 Cf. Professor Giuseppe Merzario, / Maestri Comacini, etc., Milan, 1893, P- 94 
et seq. 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



Even what has been called the osseous system, which distin- 
guishes Gothic, exists there in a potential condition. But, the 
ultimate possibilities of an organic framework are not worked 
out in Romanesque art ; this framework does not yet frankly 
and independently exercise its functions. 

In order to gain a more correct preliminary idea of Gothic 
we may here briefly review some of the steps in the process 
by which the evolution was effected ; though for a complete 
understanding of it, the fuller treatment which 
follows will be necessary. I have already al- 
luded to the fact that a new principle was intro- 
duced into the art of building when the arch 
exerting side thrusts was first employed. The 
most economical and effective way to meet such 
thrusts is by some kind of external abut- 
ments. But the thrusts of arches may 
be neutralized in another way, namely, 
by downward pressure upon the walls or 
piers against which they operate. Both 
methods were employed by the Roman 
and by the Romanesque, as well as by 
the Gothic builders. In the case of a 
simple arched opening in a wall, the 
thrusts are, of course, stayed in both of 
these ways. The lateral masses of wall 
act as abutments, and the superincumbent 
masonry tends to overcome the outward 
pressures by its weight. Where a space 
between two parallel walls is roofed over 
by a barrel vault, the continuous side 
pressures, which would tend to over- 
throw the walls, are, in Roman constructions, met by thicken- 
ing these walls enough to provide continuous resistance. The 
walls of vaulted Roman buildings are further strengthened to 
withstand the thrusts by loading them above the springing of 
the vaults. In buildings of several stories, such as the Flavian 
amphitheatre (Fig. 3), the abutting power of the enormously 
thick walls of the lower stories is augmented by the weight 
of the walls above. The top story has no vault, and its en- 
closing wall weights the walls below and contributes to the 







Fig. 3. 



I DEFINITION OF GOTHIC n 

stability of the whole structure. By such massive walls, oper- 
ating in this double way, the pressures of Roman vaults are 
much more than met, and hence the entire system is practically 
inert. In the case of intersecting vaults, which were intro- 
duced during the latter part of the imperial epoch, — as in 
the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine, — the thrusts, in- 
stead of being continuous, are concentrated upon the four points 
from which their arches spring, and are met by walls set across 
the side aisles, as shown in the plan (Fig. 4). These cross-walls 




Fig. 4. 



are, of course, true buttresses in disguise. The compartments 
of the aisles are covered by barrel vaults sprung from the cross- 
walls, and the axes of these vaults being thus perpendicular to 
the side walls of the building, no thrusts are brought to bear 
upon these walls, and consequently no external abutments are 
required. The Romans did not at any time employ the buttress 
as a distinct architectural member. They contrived their build- 
ings in such a manner that the vault thrusts should be taken 
either by dividing walls, or by the enclosing walls so thickened 
as to render them sufficiently resistant by the sheer inertia of 
their masses. 

The Romanesque builders were the first to develop the 
buttress as a distinct functional member. They began by 
breaking the outside of the wall with shallow pilaster strips 
(Fig. 5) placed against the internal divisions of the structure. 
It is true that the Romans had employed engaged columns in 
the outer walls, as in the Flavian amphitheatre, but these had 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 




Fig. 5. 



a purely decorative purpose, and even in the early Roman- 
esque monuments the pilaster strip had little structural value. 

It did, indeed, somewhat stiffen 
the walls, which had not the enor- 
mous thickness of Roman walls ; 
but it had not strength enough 
to bear much vault pressure. It 
had, however, rarely to meet 
such pressure except in the aisles 
where the vaulting was of no 
great span. But though it was 
of slight efficiency, its introduc- 
tion was an important step in 
organic architectural development. It marked the internal 
structural lines, and in the later types of Romanesque, as the 
construction of vaulting became more general, the pilaster strip 
was converted into the true buttress (Fig. 6). 

Further progress was made when the Romanesque builders 
of Northern France began to vault their naves. It was then 
found that the pilaster strip against the clerestory wall, or 
even a buttress like that shown in Fig. 6, was not enough to 
stay vaults of so much wider span than those of the aisles for 
which these primitive forms of abut- 
ment had been adequate. Expedients 
to augment the resistance of the clere- 
story buttress were accordingly re- 
sorted to, which were destined to yield 
unforeseen and important results. The 
earliest of these are well illustrated in 
the two great churches of Caen — the 
Abbaye-aux-Hommes and the Abbaye- 
aux-Dames. In the first of these build- 
ings, the vaulting, which dates from 
the early part of the twelfth century, 
is (as will be shown in the next chap- 
ter) formed in such a manner as to 
exert very powerful side thrusts. To 
meet these thrusts the expedient was 

adopted of constructing half-barrel vaults springing from the 
aisle walls and abutting against the walls of the nave beneath 




DEFINITION OF GOTHIC 



13 



the lean-to roof (Fig. 7). These were in reality concealed 
continuous flying buttresses. But they were flying buttresses 
of bad form ; for only a small part of their action met the 
concentrated thrusts of the vaults that they were designed to 
stay, the greater part of it operating against the walls between 
the piers where no abutments were required, and where their 




Fig. 7. — Section of the Abbaye-aux-Hommes. 



own inward thrust would have been disastrous had not these 
walls been made excessively strong. In the Abbaye-aux-Dames 
(Fig. 8), whose vaulting was constructed at a little later time, 
a better form of buttress occurs. 1 In this case, perhaps fol- 
lowing an initiative that had been recently taken in the Ile-de- 

1 Cf. L'£glise Ste. Trinite et V Eglise St. Etienne a Caen. Tar V. Ruprich- 
Robert. Caen, 1864. 



i 4 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

France, 1 instead of a continuous half-barrel vault springing 
from the aisle wall, separate arches were established upon the 
abutments of the aisle, and brought to bear against the but- 
tresses of the clerestory on which the thrusts of the vaulting 
were gathered. The thrusts and counterthrusts were thus con- 
centrated, though not as yet in the most effective manner. 
For the abutting arches still fell too low to offer a perfect 




FIG. 8. — Section of the Abbaye-aux-Dames. 

resistance. In the course of time they yielded, and the vaults 
had recently to be reconstructed. Hence, though an important 
step had been taken, a satisfactory solution of the problem of 
effectual abutments for vaulting over a clerestory had not yet 
been reached. The abutting arches of the Abbaye-aux-Dames 
are indeed rudimentary flying buttresses, but they are ill ad- 
justed, and are not externally apparent. 



1 In the buttresses of the choir and apse of St. Germer-de-FIy described in the 
following chapter. 



I DEFINITION OF GOTHIC 15 

Before this stage of buttress development had been reached 
in France, the Lombard builders had, as already remarked, and 
as we shall in the next chapter more fully see, introduced a 
system of independent arches or ribs of stone along the lines of 
the groins, and upon the four sides of their vaults, projecting 
below the vault surfaces, and in a measure sustaining them. 
The value of this strong stone centring was great, also, in pre- 
venting any rupture that might by any chance take place in one 
cell or compartment of the vault from communicating itself to 
the others. The Romans had, indeed, previously employed 
a system of arches to strengthen their vaults of concrete, and 
to facilitate their construction, 1 but these arches were embedded 
in the vault itself, and hence did not constitute an independent 
and visible framework having the same architectural value and 
mechanical function. The application of this ribbed system 
of vaulting, together with the functional grouping of supports 
above mentioned, to oblong as well as to square areas, com- 
pleted the structural improvements devised by the Romanesque 
builders of Northern France. 

We are yet, however, far from the Gothic system. The in- 
ert principle of ancient Roman design still largely survives ; the 
heavy vaulting, massive walls, and small openings of this Roman- 
esque architecture are opposed to the principles of Gothic. But 
the system is quickening with a latent life which will ultimately 
transform the structure, and give it a radically new character 
and expression. From this stage, the evolution of the Gothic 
style consisted in gradually perfecting the rudimentary skeleton, 
so as to make it independent of the heavy walls. To every 
part the highest working efficiency was at length given, to- 
gether with an appropriate artistic form. 

All this was rendered possible by the introduction of the 
pointed arch, which was not originally employed on account of 
any merely aesthetic preference for this form of arch in arcades, 
or in doors and windows, but as a constructive device in vault- 
ing. The properties of the pointed arch, which enabled the 
Gothic builders to overcome difficulties in vaulting that had 
been before insuperable, are that it exerts less powerful thrusts 
than the round arch, and that with a given span its crown ma) r 
be made to reach any level. Its employment in the narrow 

1 Cf. Choisy, UArt de Batir chez les Remains, Paris, 1873, p. 76 et seq. 



1 6 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



arches of a vault made it easy to raise their crowns to the levels 
of the wider-spanned arches. The vaulting of oblong areas had 
before been attended with difficulties, resulting from the fact 
that the height of the crown of a semicircular arch is deter- 
mined by its span. In vaulting such areas, the crowns of the 
round arches which spanned the narrow sides would not read 
the level of those which spanned the longer sides, while if full 
semicircular arches were used over the diagonals (on the Byzan- 
tine principle, to be considered in the next chapter), their crowns 

would reach above all the 
others. Thus (Fig. 9) the 
height cd of the arch acb is 
less than fe, the height of 
the arch afg, which again is 
exceeded by ih, the height 
of the arch aij. A vault 
constructed on such a sys- 
tem of arches must have an 
excessively domical form. 
To obviate this, in part, the 
expedient was adopted of 
stilting the narrow arches. 
That is, the level of their 
springing was raised by 
vertical substructure, considerably above that of the greater 
arches, so as to bring their crowns nearer to the same height, 
and thus to reduce the amount of doming required. But even 
when thus formed, an oblong groined vault upon round arches 
is heavy, exerts powerful thrusts, and presents an inelegant 
appearance. Oblong groined vaults, though sometimes con- 
structed, were, therefore, usually avoided by the Romanesque 
builders of the north, who, indeed, had rarely vaulted their naves, 
the portions of the building where, in Northwestern Europe 
oblong compartments most frequently occur. They generalb 
contented themselves with vaulting the aisles, the compartments 
of which were commonly square, and where groined vaults 01 
round arches were easily built with security. 1 The introductioi 

1 The Lombard and Rhenish Romanesque builders avoided the difficulties re- 
ferred to in the text by planning their buildings with square compartments in botr. 
nave and aisles, one bay of the nave embracing two bays of the aisles. This gives 




Fig. 9. 



DEFINITION OF GOTHIC 



17 




of the pointed arch, however, obviated these difficulties. By 
means of the pointed arch it became possible to construct 
groined vaults over ob- 
long compartments, 
without either doming 
or stilting, since the 
crowns of all the arches 
could be readily brought 
to the same level, what- 
ever their difference of 
span (Fig. 10). 

But it is important 
to observe that in true 
Gothic architecture ob- 
long vaults over naves 
are never constructed 
upon arches which all 

X ,-T- FlG - IO - 

spring from the same 

level, and whose crowns all reach the same height. Other 
exigencies, which will be explained in a following chapter (see 
p. 130), stood in the way of so constructing them. True Gothic 
vaults are always to some extent both stilted and domed. But 
though the full advantage of the pointed arch, in reaching any 
height with any span, could not be taken, its employment greatly 
diminished the thrusts, obviated the necessity of excessive dom- 
ing, and thus yielded more elegant effects and gave a powerful 
stimulus to invention. 

. With diminished and better concentrated thrusts better forms 
and adjustments of the external stays were soon devised. The 
flying buttresses were brought to bear more directly on the 
points of vault pressure — which were found to extend to a 
higher level than that on which the arches of the Abbaye-aux- 
Dames had abutted. In order to reach these points, it was 
found necessary to carry the abutments over the aisle roofs, 
and thus to render them conspicuous external features. The 
vault ribs were now improved in form. Their profiling, though 
still simple, became more elegant, and their grouping was ren- 
dered more compact at the springing ; while the sustaining- 
rise to an alternation of large and small piers in the nave, as will be more fully 
explained in the following chapter. 



[S 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



shafts, for which the best materials were selected, were adjusted 
in new and ingenious ways, and their bulk was reduced to a 
minimum. Thus an independent framework was created, and 

the intervening walls, 
now no longer needed 
for the stability of the 
fabric, were greatly re- 
duced in thickness, and, 
at length, almost wholly 
suppressed. The small 
apertures of the Roman- 
esque style were gradu- 
ally enlarged until the 
clerestory and aisle open- 
ings entirely filled the 
spaces between the piers. 
The general form and 
constructive character of 
a developed Gothic build- 
ing may be summarized 
as follows : — 

I. The plan (Fig. u) 
consists of a cen- 
tral nave, the 
eastern portion 
of which forms 
the choir, with 
side aisles, some- 
times one and 
sometimes two 
on each side ; 
and with a tran- 
sept usually also 
provided with 
aisles. The choir 
terminates eastward, almost invariably, in a segmental 
or polygonal apse, or sanctuary, around which the 
aisles are continued. Opening out of the apsidal 
aisles are usually a series of small chapels, the central 
one of which is, in most cases, more largely developed 




Fig. ii. — Amiens. 



DEFINITION OF GOTHIC 19 

than the rest. The transept arms have commonly rec- 
tangular ends, and the west end of the nave is invari- 
ably rectangular. The nave is divided from the aisles 
by a row of piers on each side which support the su- 
perstructure, consisting of the triforium and the clere- 
story. On the outer sides of the aisles are half-piers, 
or responds, against which are set the great buttresses 
of the exterior, and the spaces between them are en- 
closed by low and comparatively thin walls with open- 
ings above them reaching from pier to pier and up to 
the arch of the aisle vaulting. 

2. The vaults, whose forms and proportions determine the 

number and arrangement of the piers and buttresses, 
are constructed upon a complete set of salient ribs; 
namely, transverse ribs, diagonal (or groin) ribs, and 
longitudinal ribs. 1 These ribs are independent arches, 
of which the transverse and longitudinal ones are 
pointed, while the diagonals sometimes remain round. 
Upon these ribs the vaults rest — the one never being 
incorporated with the other. 

3. The ribs are sustained by slender shafts, compactly 

grouped, and often engaged, bonded by their bases 
and capitals, if not throughout their length, with the 
great piers which rise from the pavement through the 
successive stories of the building to the nave cornice. 
In addition to the shafts which support the main 
ribs of the vault are shorter ones to carry the great 
archivolts (the arches of the main arcades), the ribs of 
the aisle vaulting, and the arches of the triforium. To 
the pier is added a rectangular buttress which rises 
through the triforium and becomes an external feature 

1 I call the rib which runs parallel with the long axis of the building the longi- 
tudinal rib, rather than by its common English name wall rib, because in the devel- 
oped Gothic architecture there are no walls in the clerestory, or in the upper parts of 
the aisles. The ribs named in the text — transverse, diagonal, and longitudinal — are 
the only ribs that are structurally necessary, hence they may be said to constitute a 
complete rib system. The additional ribs, — Kernes (short connecting ribs) and tier- 
cerons (ribs placed between the transverse ribs and the diagonals). — which appear in 
later forms of vaulting, more especially in England, have no necessary mechanical 
function. The introduction of such ribs was a violation of the principles of true 
Gothic art, in which no superfluous features occur. 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

in the clerestory. Each pier is thus a compound 
member consisting of a great central column with 
which are incorporated smaller shafts and a buttress. 
By these piers the vaults are supported — their thrusts 
being so completely neutralized by the external but- 
tress system that they require to be only massive 
enough to bear the weight of the vaults. 

The clerestory buttresses are reinforced by flying but- 
tresses, which are segments of arches rising from the 
vast outer abutments (the external members of the 
responds of the aisles) and springing over the aisle 
roofs. These flying buttresses are the most character- 
istic features of the Gothic exterior. 

Walls proper are almost entirely omitted. Those that 
are retained are the low enclosing walls of the ground 
story, and the spandrels of the various arcades. The 
spaces between the piers, and beneath the arches of 
the vaulting, in both clerestory and aisles, are entirely 
open, like the intercolumniations of a colonnade. They 
are formed into vast windows, divided by mullions and 
tracery which support the iron bars to which the 
glazing is attached. It will thus be seen that the full 
development of the Gothic system is brought out only 
where the plan of the building includes a high central 
nave and lower side aisles. It was in such buildings 
that the system was evolved. The active principle 
introduced with the flying buttress, as opposed to the 
comparatively inert principle of the Romanesque wall 
and wall buttress, is the distinguishing principle of 
Gothic construction^ as we have already remarked. By 
the flying buttress in connection with the pointed arch 
in the ribs of the vaulting, and a peculiar adjustment 
of these ribs (t o. be explai ned^ axther on), is the Gothic 
concentration and resistance I of thrusts rendered pos- 
sible. A building without aisles, like the Sainte 
Chapelle of Paris, may, indeed-,— consist of a simple 
open skeleton sustaining vaults. When the system 
was once developed in buildings of three or more aisles 
of unequal height, it was natural to employ a simpler 
form of it in the construction of those of simpler plan. 






I DEFINITION OF GOTHIC 21 

But it is unlikely that architecture like that of the Sainte 
Chapelle would ever have come into being had build- 
ings of so simple form only been required. It was the 
need of vast stone-roofed churches, such as could not 
be constructed without aisles, that stimulated the 
genius of the Gothic builders and led to the produc- 
tion of the remarkable monuments of the Middle Ages 
that fill us to-day with wonder and admiration. 

Such, in brief outline, is the structural character of Gothic 
architecture. It was not, however, in constructive invention 
alone that the genius of the Gothic builders found expression. 
The Gothic edifice was not merely an organic structure of 
naked masonry however ingenious. It was wrought with a fine 
sense of proportion 1 and was enriched by the auxiliary arts of 
carving and colour design. Before the time of Gothic art a gen- 
uine aptitude for sculpture and painting had been manifest in 
the northern genius. But the early works of the races of 
Northern Europe in these arts were grotesquely rude and 
uncouth, and the same character has been mistakenly attrib- 
uted to the work of the Gothic artists. But Gothic art is by 
no means rude and uncouth. It is, in its best forms, highly 
refined and elegant ; for it is not a product of the unmixed and 
uncultivated northern peoples. By the twelfth century the 
mingling of races, which had long been going on in France, 
had at length produced a people in whose constitution were 
happily blended some of the best characteristics of the Latin, 
Celtic, and Teutonic stocks. It was this people who developed 
the Gothic style and gave to its marvellous constructive system 
equally new and appropriate types of carved and painted adorn- 
ment. Gothic architecture, with its wealth of sculpture and 
painting, is not an art of barbarians, as the Neo-classicists 
of the Renaissance and many more recent writers have sup- 
posed. It is far otherwise. It is an art of that civilized 
people which grew up, through generations of conflict and 

1 To what extent the mediaeval architects intended to observe any mathematical 
formulas of proportion I do not know; but it is certain that they followed no such 
formulas with any strict precision. Formulas are, indeed, foreign to artistic work, and 
are inimical to beauty. Hence Bacon's remark: "There is no excellent beauty that 
hath not some strangeness in the proportion." 



22 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

mutual interchange of ideas, out of the fusion of Northern and 
Southern blood. This fusion produced a superior race, a race 
equal in artistic capacity to any of those of ancient times, and 
in which the genius of the North supplied a fertile imagina- 
tion and a daring spirit of innovation, while that of the South 
contributed a disciplined sense of beauty and an inheritance of 
classic culture. Thus, Gothic art, though embodying widely 
different principles, is no less remarkable and admirable than 
classic art. Indeed, notwithstanding its difference, Gothic art 
has much in common with that of classic antiquity. In breadth 
of design, coordination of parts, and measured recurrence of 
structural and ornamental elements, the Gothic artist obeyed, 
though in a different form, the same primary laws that had 
governed the ancient Greek. 

While both sculpture and painting were employed as auxil- 
iaries, it was sculpture rather than painting that reached a high 
degree of perfection in the mediaeval system. This does not, 
however, appear to have been due to any lack of aptitude for 
painting, but rather to the fact that the Gothic artists were pre- 
occupied with the creation of a form of architecture which afforded 
little field for the exercise of the painter's art — except such as 
had a purely ornamental character. In painting of this kind the 
French workmen of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries at- 
tained a degree of excellence that no others have ever equalled. 
The art of producing brilliantly coloured designs in glass to 
enclose the vast openings of the new architecture was, indeed, 
a kind of painting which the Gothic artists developed magnifi- 
cently, and made peculiarly their own. But a twofold conven- 
tion — that of architectural fitness on the one hand, and the 
far-reaching, one growing out of the nature of the translucent 
material on the other — limited this art to the most strictly 
heraldic conditions. 

But for sculpture there was an unlimited field, and in this 
field the grandest achievements were reached. In Gothic sculp- 
ture a singular correspondence with the spirit of Gothic con- 
struction is noticeable. As what may be likened to a living 
organic principle distinguishes this construction, so does a vital 
principle find expression in Gothic sculpture to an extent un- 
equalled in the sculpture of any other school or epoch. An 
appreciation of the animating spirit of nature, from which all 






I DEFINITION OF GOTHIC 23 

the elements of this sculpture are drawn, is invariably dis- 
played. Whether in subordinate ornamentation — the enrich- 
ment of capitals, the running patterns of string-courses, the 
voussoirs of archivolts, — or in the sculpture of the human figure 
itself, this expression of life is always marked. It is true that 
in the ornamental sculpture of the best previous schools of art 
a vital character is often noticeable, and is seldom wholly want- 
ing. Most Greek ornamentation, though severely abstract and 
conventional, owes its essential beauty to qualities of line 
and surface that suggest life. And in Greek, as in Gothic, art 
these qualities were plainly derived from natural organic forms. 
I do not mean to affirm that there was in the mind of the Greek 
carver, when elaborating his ornament, any direct and conscious 
reference to nature, or any imitative intention. But the inspira- 
tion of nature is clearly apparent even in the most abstract 
elements of Greek ornamental design, except such as are of a 
purely geometrical character. The profiles of Doric capitals, 
Ionic volutes, and of acanthus leafage afford instances which 
will occur to every student of Greek art. But in Gothic orna- 
ment this expression of life takes a wider range, and the sug- 
gestion of nature is more full and varied. Even a resemblance 
to many different species of vegetation appears, and an exten- 
sive architectural flora is at length evolved (answering, it is 
said, in some cases to the natural flora of the locality in which 
the work is wrought) and used to adorn the structural forms. 

But the varied ornamental schemes of Gothic art are not 
independent creations any more than is the structural system 
an independent development. Their roots may all be traced 
back to the arts of antiquity. The ancient ornamental motives 
and arrangements had survived under variously modified forms 
in the works of the Romanesque designers. They had, indeed, 
been often imitated without intelligence or skill, and many 
changes resulting from ignorance and incapacity had been 
made. But with the renewed artistic activity of the eleventh 
century improvements were made, and in the later Romanesque 
art a new spirit was already infused into them. In the hands 
of the Gothic artists, however, they received a still more vital 
character, and were developed with a fertility of invention, and 
an artistic power, altogether without precedent. 

Yet, notwithstanding its remarkable expression of life based 



24 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

on nature, the work of the Gothic carver is as a rule appropriately 
conventionalized. Only those abstract qualities of form which 
are capable of effective monumental treatment are taken from 
nature. Nothing more than this appears until the period of 
decadence in Gothic art. The conventional character of the 
work is of the kind that results from a just sense of the purposes 
and limitations of architectural sculpture which the mediaeval 
designer had acquired from time-honoured tradition, and which 
was consonant with his own native feelings. He instinctively 
felt the universal applicability of the principles that had gov- 
erned the arts in ancient times. He saw that they were based 
upon immutable laws of disposition, relation, and quantity ; and 
thus that while the component elements of an ornamental 
scheme might be re-created and endlessly varied, the ruling 
principles of arrangement might not be disregarded. And they 
never are disregarded in pure Gothic art. The general scheme 
always bears evidence of its ancient origin. Thus in the west 
front of the Cathedral of Amiens there are string-courses whose 
ornamental elements are formed and arranged so as to recall 
the well-known egg and dart scheme of the Greeks. Others 
correspond to various meanders and scrolls of classic design. 
But instead of the formalized abstractions of the antique details, 
we have often the generic types, and even many of the specific 
peculiarities, of natural leafage. In the one motive a rounded 
foliate or floral boss answers to the ovate members of the 
ancient scheme, while a tendril with lateral leaves answers to 
the dart. In the others the meander or scroll is a living branch, 
into the spaces enclosed by the wavy or convoluted lines of 
which grow, as of their own volition, unfolding leaves, which 
give place at intervals to springing, crouching, or reposing ani- 
mals and birds. Everywhere in Gothic art do we find expres- 
sion of organic life, but this life is invariably governed by the 
exigencies of architectural fitness. The artist, while keenly 
appreciative of nature, has a constant regard to the conditions 
of his art. 

The same vital beauty, and the same monumental treat- 
ment, mark Gothic figure sculpture. And in figure sculpture, 
no less than in foliate ornament, ancient traditional principles 
of design form the basis on which the new developments are 
wrought. 



I DEFINITION OF GOTHIC 25 

In a definition of Gothic architecture only the purest forms 
of the art properly concern us. Its decadent phases need not 
be followed, nor need we consider the many imitations and 
modifications of Gothic which arose in different parts of Europe 
after the twelfth century. These often possess great interest, 
and sometimes even great beauty, but they do not afford a 
true illustration of the Gothic style. The pure Gothic, that 
which alone is really a new and consistent style, differing 
fundamentally in its structural and ornamental systems from 
all other styles, is, as we shall see, native to France only. 
Hence, upon the Gothic of France our definition is necessarily 
founded. 

This Gothic architecture, like every other great art, was in 
its completeness of short duration. After a long period of 
preparation and germination, — - a period extending through all 
the earlier Middle Ages, — the organic Romanesque types of 
Lombardy and Northern France were produced, in which we 
see that the genius of the builders was reaching out more and 
more after new principles, and this inventive progress went 
on until at length a combination of happy conditions conspired 
to bring them into full embodiment. The eleventh and twelfth 
centuries brought about in Northern Gaul that fine balance 
of ethnologic, religious, social, and political influences which 
gave character to the newly formed French nation, and of 
which Gothic architecture is among the noblest manifestations. 
But the spiritual and intellectual forces that were active in the 
twelfth and thirteenth centuries suffered a change thereafter, 
and a corresponding course of architectural decline set in. If 
we would really know Gothic art, we must study it in the vigour 
and beauty of its early, and first mature, life. Its character- 
istics in these states are what I have attempted briefly to 
describe and shall, in the succeeding chapters, endeavour more 
fully to illustrate. 

The edifice which most completely embodied the Gothic 
spirit was the cathedral — the leading object of popular, munici- 
pal, and ecclesiastical interest and enthusiasm. In the cathe- 
dral church were centred the most potent and active interests 
— religious, communal, and social; and on it was expended the 
best genius of the time, as well as the vast material resources 
which the free communes were now able to command. The 



26 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

cathedral thus became a substantial expression of the growing 
freedom from feudal oppression, and of monarchial and com- 
munal organization — as well as of religious faith and aspira- 
tion. History affords no parallel to the spirit which gave rise 
to the Gothic cathedral. The nearest approach to it was that 
which produced the Greek temple. Both grew out of condi- 
tions of strong popular enthusiasm engaging with religious and 
civic ardour in the construction and adornment of monuments 
for public benefit and enjoyment. It was the cathedral, the 
largest, the most comprehensive, and the most popular form 
of the Christian church, that brought out the full development 
of Gothic architecture. 

Nevertheless, the first steps of development from Roman- 
esque to Gothic were taken before the great cathedral move- 
ment set in. They were taken in the monastic churches, and 
with them the study of this development must begin. 

The vast new impulse in building, which in the eleventh 
century extended all over Christian Europe, assumed a peculiar 
and potent character with the religious orders of the North. 
In Italy, while buildings of great extent and magnificence, such 
as the Cathedral of Pisa, were at this time begun, no new sys- 
tem was foreshadowed in their construction, no new principle 
was introduced. 1 But north of the Alps, or rather north of the 
Loire, a new architectural style was rapidly forming. The 
monastic orders of the North, less given than those of the South 
to seclusion, contemplation, and inaction, soon became very 
energetic builders. With them mutual intercourse and inter- 
change of ideas were general, a spirit of invention was active, 
and constructive enterprise was astir in all directions. The 
immunity from pillage which the monastic establishments had 
enjoyed during the most troubled times had enabled them to 
accumulate wealth, and thus made it possible for them to 
enter upon extensive building operations to provide more ample 
and more elegant accommodations the need of which had its 
source in their enlarged relations with the masses of the 
people. The monasteries had early taken every means to 
qualify large bodies of men to practise the arts. They had 
organized and maintained schools where art and science were 

1 The Lombard architecture of Northern Italy forms an exception, of course; but 
this was not really a native Italian art. 



DEFINITION OF GOTHIC 



27 



taught, where architecture, sculpture, and painting were culti- 
vated under guidance of traditions which regulated the leading 
forms of production while they yet left some scope for the free 
play of new ideas. 1 Under these conditions of monastic life 
and organization were made the first attempts to improve the 
forms and methods of vaulting, which led to the structural use 
of the pointed arch and to the infusion of a new spirit into the 
old forms of ornamentation. The early monastic building 
experiments were often awkward and unsuccessful, but the 
builders were quick to profit by failure, and to embody the new 
ideas which failures suggested in fresh undertakings, which, 
however imperfect, were improvements on what had been 
done before. 

But the monasteries, active and ingenious as were their 
inmates, were not the sources from which were to issue the 
most potent ideas and influences. The full development of 
the Gothic system was not to be the work of the monk. The 
freest exercise of invention could not be called out under the 
shadow of the cloister, and the architectural requirements of 
monastic routine and ceremonial were of comparatively nar- 
row range. A freer spirit of enterprise, a wider experience 
of life, and a more majestic ritual were needed to call into 
activity the highest powers of the creative imagination, and 
fully to develop the genius of the Middle Ages. Yet there 
are few things more interesting, more instructive, or more 
beautiful in human history than the spectacle of these early 
cowled builders struggling against all difficulties and disadvan- 
tages, and laying the foundations of a new art which was, in 
the stronger hands of their lay successors, to culminate in the 
marvels of Chartres and Amiens. 

One further point must be noticed ; namely, that the archi- 
tecture of the Middle Ages not only reached its highest per- 
fection in the cathedrals, but that it was, in the strictest sense, 
an architecture of churches primarily. That is to say, it was 
in church edifices alone that the Gothic style was developed, 
and it was in these only that it could be completely embodied. 

1 The monastic buildings were not only planned, and the works on them directed, 
by the monks, but they were also largely, if not entirely, constructed with their own 
hands. Cf. Lenoir, Architecture Monastique, p. 36 et seq., and Montalembert, Les 
Moines d' Occident, vol. vi. p. 242 et seq. 



28 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap, i 

The structural and ornamental forms that were first brought 
into being in the church building were afterwards applied, as 
far as they were suitable, to such civil, military, and domestic 
buildings as were to have any architectural character ; but in 
such buildings there could be no independent developments of 
a Gothic kind. Broadly speaking, this has always been so. 
Architecture inspired by religious zeal, and intended for religious 
uses, has ever preceded that designed for secular purposes, 
and has mainly determined the character of secular building. 
We are apt to forget that the leading architecture of the Egyp- 
tians was that of the temple ; that their temples were the chief 
architectural monuments of the Greeks ; that the best elements 
of classic Roman architecture were borrowed from Greek tem- 
ples; that the civil and domestic architecture of the Middle 
Ages was that of the churches adapted to civil- and domestic 
needs; and that the original elements of modern architecture 
were first developed in ancient temples and mediaeval churches. 

Finally, it should be considered that the Gothic edifice, 
with its myriads of sculptured forms, was like a vast open 
page whereon were written, in imagery which the most illit- 
erate could read, the legends and traditions of the mediaeval 
faith. These legends and traditions must be reckoned among 
the chief sources of inspiration and stimulus to the imaginations 
of the Gothic builders. They appealed to the warmest sym- 
pathies and quickened the highest aspirations of the people, 
and filled them with devotion to the fabric which they sought 
to make, at whatever cost of labour and of treasure, a fitting 
expression of their beliefs and hopes. 1 

As already remarked, and as this work is largely designed to 
show, this architecture is native to France, and to France only. 
But our consideration of the rise of Gothic art in France must 
be preceded, in the next chapter, by a fuller examination of 
the sources of Gothic in the Romanesque developments that 
were in progress from the breaking up of the Roman civilization 
to the beginning of the twelfth century. 

1 The terrors held out by the dogmas of the mediaeval church, the fear of a mate- 
rially conceived hell of torment, etc., may have contributed, in some measure, towards 
the church-building activity of the Middle Ages. But the zeal which mainly animated 
the Gothic artists was certainly not from this source. 






CHAPTER II 

THE SOURCES OF GOTHIC 

Before entering upon a fuller consideration of the develop- 
ment of the Gothic style out of the Romanesque, some examina- 
tion of the evolution of the Romanesque itself, and of its 
principal varieties, is necessary to a proper understanding of 
our subject. The Gothic system was immediately evolved out of 
the Romanesque of Northern France, which began to assume 
its characteristc forms in the eleventh century and reached 
its completest type, as we shall see, by mo in the nave of 
the Church of St. Etienne of Beauvais. But the principles and 
elements of this Romanesque architecture were partly in turn 
derived from more ancient sources, and from various distant 
localities. In fact, the evolution of the architecture of the 
Middle Ages begins with the earliest departures from the princi- 
ples and constructive forms of the art of imperial Rome and 
culminates in the Gothic art of the twelfth and thirteenth centu- 
ries. The various types of Christian Roman and Romanesque 
building which intervene are but so many phases of a transitional 
art, except such as are only survivals of old forms devoid of pro- 
gressive character. This fact has, with a few recent exceptions, 
hardly been recognized by writers on mediaeval architecture. 
It was, however, virtually implied by Quicherat forty years 
ago in his excellent definition of Romanesque, 1 which is as 
follows : " L' Architecture Romane est celle qui a cesse d'etre 
romaine, quoiqu'elle tienne beaucoup du romaine, et qui n'est 
pas encore gothique, quoiqu'elle ait deja quelque chose du Go- 
thique." This definition removes the beginning of Romanesque 
to a period far anterior to the eleventh century, when that of 
Northwestern Europe first takes form. If that architecture is 
Romanesque which has ceased to be Roman while it has not 

1 Given in his essay, " De l'Architecture Romane," originally published in the 
Revue Archeologique, and reprinted in the Melange d 1 Archiologie et J'llistoire edited 
by M. de Lasteyrie. Paris, 1886. 

29 



30 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

yet become Gothic, though it has some elements of Gothic, then 
we must look for the beginnings of Romanesque in those archi- 
tectural systems which exhibit the earliest innovations on the 
Roman principles of design. Those systems arose in the Eastern 
countries, chiefly in the Byzantine Empire, where, after the de- 
cline of the older Roman civilization, the conditions first became 
favourable to a fresh creative impulse in the fine arts. Our 
examination of the sources of Gothic must, then, begin with the 
nascent Romanesque of these Eastern countries. 

The architecture of imperial Rome was incapable of struc- 
tural development without material changes in its principles and 
forms. The square cross-vault, with its elliptical groins and 
cylindrical surfaces, was an inflexible vault ; and the oblong cross- 
vault, with its wavy groins, was hardly less so. The ponderous 
walls and piers that sustained this vaulting covered an excessive 
area, but could not be safely reduced in volume, while the super- 
ficial application of the trabeate orders to this arched con- 
struction presented an insuperable obstacle to the evolution of 
a logical and appropriate architectural style. 

The earliest departures from the Roman structural and orna- 
mental forms seem to have been made in the Asiatic provinces, 
— chiefly in the cities of Central Syria, — where as early as the 
second and third centuries a rational and consistent use of 
arches and columns was made, and the Greco-Roman mouldings 
were admirably modified to suit new conditions. 1 In the later 
constructions of this region, dating from the fifth and sixth 
centuries, structural developments were reached which give to 
these monuments a strikingly Romanesque appearance. 2 

In these constructions arches always spring from the heads of 
the piers or columns, no bits of entablatures are interposed, and 
no framing in of the arches by columns and entablatures occurs. 
Where arches are sprung across the nave, dividing it into bays, 
additional supports are inserted, which are grouped with the 
piers of the longitudinal arcades in a manner that foreshadows 
the grouping of supports in the later Romanesque and Gothic 
systems. These logical structural adjustments were, perhaps, 

1 Cf. the Pretorium of Mousmieh and the Basilica of Chaqqa, described and 
illustrated by M. de Vogue, in his Syrie Centrale. Paris, 1865-1877. 

2 Cf. in the same work the churches of Barbouda, Roueiha, Baquaza, Qalb- 
Louzeh, and Tourmanin. 






II THE SOURCES OF GOTHIC 31 

not without influence upon the later Roman art of the West. 
The famous Arcade of Spalato (circa 300 a.d.), the Basilica of 
Maxentius, and other similar Roman works which (unlike most 
Roman buildings) exhibit similar features, may not improbably, 
in respect to them, have been derived from this Syrian source. 

The naves of the churches of Central Syria were generally 
covered with timber roofs. Vaulting is rare, and the only vault 
forms that occur are the barrel vault, the dome, and the semi- 
dome. None of these forms had any part in the evolution of 
the Gothic style, 1 and hence they do not concern us here, 
though they were all extensively employed in many varieties of 
Romanesque. The general absence of vaulting precluded any 
further structural progress in this early Syrian architecture, 
unless the use of short shafts resting on corbels against the 
clerestory wall and supporting the timber roofs, which some- 
times occur, 2 may be regarded as foreshadowing a similar 
arrangement that was subsequently employed in the Roman- 
esque of Southern France and elsewhere. 

To what extent the rise of the Greco-Roman architecture of 
Central Syria may have been due to an influence from the 
further East, it is difficult to determine ; but it appears that in 
Persia the arch had been sprung from columns from very 
ancient times — as in the altars of Nakhche-Roustem 3 dating, 
it is believed, from before the time of Cyrus. By the sixth cen- 
tury a.d., a system of blind shafted arcades, with taller shafts at 
intervals embracing several stories of an edifice, was in use, 4 
closely resembling the arcades and pilaster strips of the Lom- 
bard and Rhenish Romanesque of the Middle Ages. But the 
first system in which important innovations in vaulting (where 
all fundamental structural progress in mediaeval architecture 
has its rise) occur is the Byzantine. Without attempting the 
difficult task of explaining the manner in which the rudiments 
of an organic architectural system, which had arisen in the 
farther East, were first laid hold of by the constructors at Con- 

1 A theory has been lately put forth by M. Corroyer {L Architecture Goihigue, 
Paris: Quantin), which derives the Gothic system from the Byzantine dome on 
pendentives. This theory has been promptly refuted, and it will hardly commend 
itself to any discriminating student of Gothic art. 

2 As in the Church of Qalb-Louzek, de Vogue, Op. at., plate 126. 
3 Dieulafoy, /.'Art Antique de la Perse, part 3, plate 5. 

4 As at Ctesiphon, Dieulafoy, Op. cit., part 5, plate 3. 



32 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

stantinople, it is enough to observe that still further improvements 
on the Roman principles of design early began to appear in 
the Byzantine capital, where the Greek genius, under the stimu- 
lus of the improved conditions of society that followed the estab- 
lishment of the new seat of empire, exercised a dominant influence. 
In this system, which first stands forth in its complete character 
in the Church of St. Sophia, we have a consistent architectural 
type distinct from the Roman ; and one which contains the seeds 
of still further development. 

The most conspicuous, and the most distinctive, feature of 
the Byzantine style, the dome on pendentives, does not concern 
us here, because, as already observed, the dome was a form of 
vault that contributed nothing toward the formation of Gothic. 
The most pregnant innovation of the Byzantine constructors was 
the domical groined vault with which the small square and ob- 
long compartments of the aisles and the narthex of St. Sophia 
are covered. This vault has nothing in common with the 
Roman groined vault. It is formed on a different, and far more 
flexible, principle. The typical Roman groined vault consists of 
two half-cylinders of equal diameter intersecting at right angles. 
It necessarily has elliptical groins and level crowns, and can be 
adjusted only to a square area. Abandoning the idea of cylin- 
drical interpenetrating vaults, the Byzantine architect conceived a 
form in which the groins, as well as the arches on the four sides 
of the vault, should be semicircular. This, as explained on p. 16, 
raised the crowns of the groin arches above the level of the 
crowns of the side arches, and produced surfaces that were no- 
where cylindrical, but were concaved more or less like the inside 
of a dome, though no portion of its surface is perfectly spheri- 
cal. By this innovation the restriction to square areas in groined 
vaulting, to which the Romans had for the most part been con- 
fined, was overcome without resort to the device of stilting, by 
means of which the later Roman builders had sometimes awk- 
wardly covered oblong compartments. 1 

In addition to this improvement in vaulting the Byzantine 
constructors made equally important improvements in the forms 
of the capitals and bases of columns, in adapting them to an 

1 As in portions of the Baths of Caracalla. For illustration of Roman and Byzan- 
tine vaulting see Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire, etc., s.v. Voute, and A. Choisy, VArt 
de Batir chez les Romains and R Art de Batir chez les Byzantins. 



THE SOURCES OF GOTHIC 



33 



arched system of construction. In the arcades of St. Sophia, 
especially in those of the apsidal alcoves adjoining the half- 
domes that abut the central dome east and west, are columns 
with capitals and bases which, as will be shown in a later chap- 
ter, closely approach in form those that support the arcades of 
the apsidal aisles of early Gothic structures. Other features of 
the Byzantine architecture which anticipate those of subsequent 
Romanesque and Gothic design are : galleries over the aisles, 1 
groups of shafted arches embraced by a larger arch, and the 
grouping of arch orders in receding planes. 

It was long before further developments took place. The 
later Byzantine art exhibits no new structural features ; and in 
the countries of Western Europe the conditions during the early 
Middle Ages were too unsettled to admit of architectural prog- 
ress. Building activity continued ; but the types of design 
already created were more or less imperfectly followed by the 
unskilled workmen of Italy, Gaul, Germany, and Britain. 

The Byzantine influence at Ravenna during the exarchate 
did little more than to engraft some Byzantine details upon the 
structures of the Christian Roman type. In the Church of St. 
Apollonare in Classe, however, a feature unknown to the 
Byzantine system occurs, 2 — that, namely, of a pilaster strip 
marking on the exterior the internal divisions of the edifice. 
If this be a part of the original work, it may, it would seem, be 
regarded as the earliest instance of the use of a member that 
was ultimately developed into the Gothic buttress. 

The artistic stimulus temporarily given to the arts of the 
West by Charlemagne was not a fruitful one. The rough 
Northern races that successively invaded the west of Europe 
brought no arts with them. They had not, in their old homes, 
reached a sufficient degree of civilization to develop any but 
the rudest arts. The great influence which these races sub- 
sequently exercised on the arts of the West was largely due to 
the culture and training which, after settlement, they acquired 
by contact with the native peoples. This taught them how to 
bring their own original genius into effective play, and enabled 

1 Cf. Cattaneo, L' Architettura in Italia dalSecolo Vial Mi lie Circa, Venice. 1889, 
p. 38. 

2 Of which we have noticed (p. 31) a Persian adumbration in the palace at 
Ctesiphon. 

D 



34 



GOIHIC ARCHITECTURE 



them ultimately to contribute so much towards the formation of 
the magnificent arts of the Middle Ages. But during the Car- 
lovingian epoch these Northern races did not reach any con- 
siderable degree of independent artistic power. On the other 
hand, the genius of the Latin peoples, depressed by the dispirit- 
ing burdens and the catastrophes that had followed the dissolu- 
tion of the ancient social order, was at this time inactive. Hence 
the monuments of this period exhibit few innovations on the 
principles and forms that had been established in Roman and 
Byzantine art. The Church of Aix-la-Chapelle, however, which 
is a simplified copy of the polygonal Church of St. Vitale of 
Ravenna, and is the most important building that has survived 
from the Carlovingian epoch, exhibits one peculiarity that be- 
speaks constructive ingenuity worthy of notice. The vaulting 
of the concentric aisle of the ground story of this building is 
contrived in a manner that avoids the trapezoidal compartments 
of St. Vitale. This is accomplished by doubling the number of 
the sides of the external polygon, so as to get a series of radiat- 
ing square vaults with intervening triangular compartments 
(Fig. 12). This arrangement was afterwards reproduced in 
the Rotunda of Brescia, and later still in the Gothic apsidal 
aisles of Notre-Dame-en-Vaux (Chalons-sur-Marne) and of the 
Cathedral of Le Mans. 

The first conditions leading to a vigorous new life in Western 
Europe, and giving rise to fresh artistic developments, seem to 
have been those which followed the Lombard settlement in 
Italy, and the rise of the Italian republics. As before re- 
marked (p. 9, note), no architectural innovations appear to have 
been made here during the actual Lombard dominion, but as 
early as the tenth century the germs of a progressive art were 
manifest, and by the middle of the century following an organic 
architectural system of great novelty and excellence had been 
produced. 

No entire building of the Lombard Romanesque type dat- 
ing from the tenth century has come down to us. But portions 
of Lombard structures are preserved, in some of which, as has 
recently been pointed out, 1 features unknown in the older types 
of building occur. The most important of these is a compound 

1 See Cattaneo, U Architettitra in Italia dal Secolo VI al Jlli/le Circa. 



THE SOURCES OE GOTHIC 



35 



form of support, consisting of a pilaster-like member and an 
engaged round shaft, apparently designed to carry vaulting. 
An example of this, dating it is supposed from the latter part 
of the tenth century, 1 occurs in the Church of San Felice near 
Vicenza. In the apse of St. Stephano of Verona we have 
what it seems likely may be the earliest extant instance of an 




Fig. 12. 



apsidal aisle; and in the vaulting of this aisle the arrange- 
ment already noticed in Aix-la-Chapelle is again carried out. 2 
This curious apse is constructed out of fragments that had 
been rudely wrought for a still earlier building, and exhibits a 

1 Cf. Cattaneo, Ibid., p. 229. 

2 The apsiflal aisle itself, a feature which became so important in the later medi- 
aeval church architecture, may, it would seem, very possibly have been originally 
suggested by the circular and polygonal buildings with concentric aisles which had 
been common from early Christian times. Half of such a building would give the 
rudimentary form of the apse of a Romanesque or Gothic church. 



36 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

lack of executive skill which renders only the more interesting 
its novel system. 1 Other new architectural features that became 
characteristic of the Lombard Romanesque, and afterwards of 
many other varieties of Romanesque design, are corbel-tables, 
pilaster strips, aud ornamental arcades. These already appear 
in the apse of San Vincenzo in Prato at Milan, which dates from 
the ninth century. 2 Beyond this it seems impossible now to 
ascertain to what extent the peculiar Lombard system was 
developed at this early period. We learn, however, from these 
fragmentary remains that some of its features were then extant 
in primitive form. 

It is not known that any mediaeval structure completely 
covered with groined vaults of a date prior to the year iooo 
survives. But we have two important monuments, one at 
least of which dates apparently from the second half of the 
eleventh century, that exhibit this earliest type of organic 
Romanesque in a fully developed form, — the Church of San 
Michele of Pavia, and the Church of St. Ambrogio of Milan. 
These churches have the Western cruciform plan; both have 
triforium galleries and both are vaulted throughout. St. Am- 
brogio is the earlier structure of the two. Its nave, aisles, and 
triforium galleries have groined vaulting in square, or nearly 
square, compartments, and since the nave is double the width 
of the aisles, each of its compartments necessarily embraces 
two of the smaller aisle compartments. It is to be observed 
that these vaults are constructed on the Byzantine model, 
having a domical form rather than that which results from the 
interpenetration of half-cylinders as in Roman groined vaults. 
This is an important characteristic, and its occurrence here in 
the very earliest form of organic Romanesque design is signifi- 
cant. For, as we shall see, it was the Byzantine, and not the 
Roman, groined vault that lent itself to those subsequent 
developments which culminated in the Gothic. How the 
Lombard builders were led to the use of this form of vault, 
we have no means of knowing. They may have become 
acquainted with it through the Byzantine works at Ravenna, 
where it occurs in the porch and on the east side of St. Vitale. 3 

1 Cf. Cattaneo, I' Architettura in Italia dal Secolo VI al Mille Circa, p. 213. 

2 Cattaneo, Ibid., p. 212. 

3 Cf. Dartein, Etude stir /' Architecture lombarde, Paris, 1 865- 1 882. 



ii THE SOURCES OF GOTHIC 37 

However this may be, they appear to have promptly recognized 
its structural advantages and they soon developed it farther 
in a remarkable manner. 

In the vaulting of St. Sophia, already noticed, a strong 
salient arch is sprung over each of the four sides of each 
compartment. 1 Similar arches bound the vaults of the aisles 
and triforium galleries of St. Ambrogio. But in the vaulting 
of the nave of this later edifice features are introduced that 
we have not before met with, and which constitute the first 
and most far-reaching Lombard innovation ; namely, salient 
arches, or ribs, following and strengthening the groins. This 
was a device of great importance ; for these groin ribs, to- 
gether with the bounding arches, formed a complete supporting 
skeleton by means of which the stone ceiling could be made 
much lighter than before, and which ultimately gave the greatest 
freedom in vault construction. To support these arches and 
ribs, corresponding additions were made to the great piers 
which gave each member in the vault its own vertical support. 
A similar support was also given to each of the arches of the 
ground story and triforium ; and thus was produced the earliest 
form of the compound pier, which is a peculiar feature of the 
Northern Romanesque and Gothic art. The illustration 
(Fig. 13) will explain this system. It will be seen that the 
heavy transverse rib of the vault rests on a pilaster rising 
from the pavement, that the diagonal rib rests on an engaged 
round column placed in the reentrant angle between the first 
pilaster and a second one which carries the wall rib, and that 
the doubled archivolts of the ground story are carried by the 
second pilaster and an engaged shaft, while those of the tri- 
forium gallery are carried on a short pilaster and an engaged 
shaft. The inner half of the small transverse rib {a in the 
figure) that separates the two aisle vaults comprised within each 
of the greater bays of the nave is carried by a small rectan- 
gular intermediate pier having an engaged shaft on either 
side to support the sub-order of the great archivolts. This inter- 
mediate pier carries also a diminutive shaft (b) rising against 
the arcade spandrels nearly to the triforium string. Above 
this a very low pier, of like form to the one below, carries 
the archivolts of the triforium. Thus we have in St. Ambrogio 

1 As is the case, also, in some of the ancient cisterns of Constantinople. 



38 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



a system in which the great piers supporting the larger vaulting 
of the nave alternate with smaller piers whose function is con- 
fined to the vaulting of the aisles. This functional alternation 
of large and small piers is characteristic of the early vaulted 
Lombard structures. It is a consequence of the employment 




Fig. 13. — St. Ambrogio of Milan. 

of vaulting in square areas where the aisles are but half as wide 
as the nave, and the number of vaults in each aisle is twice as 
great as in the nave. 

It may be well to remark that two types of groined-vaulted 
buildings occur in Northwestern Europe during the Middle Ages, 
which may be called, respectively, the alternate and the uniform ; 
the alternate type, like St. Ambrogio, having the vault com- 



THE SOURCES OE GOTHIC 



39 



partments arranged as at A, Fig. 14, and the uniform having 
them arranged as at B in the same figure. The alternate system 
seems to have originated in the early Lombard Romanesque, 
while the uniform system appears to have been developed in 
Northern France. In some cases the vaulting of the later 
Lombard edifices has been remodelled into the form that be- 
longs to the uniform system, while the substructure retains 
the alternate form — as in the Cathedral at Parma. In the 
Northern Romanesque and Gothic schools both types occur 
with almost equal fre- 
quency. 1 L ,- ( '; -, vl 

In St. Ambrogio 
the thrusts of the vault- 
ing of the nave are met 
by heavy cross-walls 
built over the trans- 
verse ribs of the vault- 
ing of the triforium 




gallery, and these are Ell 
in turn reenforced by 
vigorously salient pilas- 
ter buttresses against 
the outside wall. The 
whole structure is cov- 
ered by an unbroken 
gable roof of timber 
up to the rafters of 
which the abutting cross-walls of the triforium are carried. 
There is consequently no clerestory, and the abutments are 
effective for their purpose. Great progress in the direction 
of an organic system is thus manifest in St. Ambrogio. A 
rudimentary skeleton runs through the whole edifice, though 
the heavy walls of the ancient types of buildings still remain. 

1 The kind of alternation that occurs in some of the basilican churches, as in St. 
Prassede of Rome, San Miniato near Florence, St. Michael, Hildersheim, and others, 
is of a different character and from a different origin. In buildings of this class the 
alternate arrangement of the piers has no reference to vaulting, and vaulting does 
not occur. The great piers which are introduced among the columns carry trans- 
verse arches with cross-walls built over them, which divide the timber-roofed nave 
into rectangular compartments. There are usually in such buildings several col- 
• umns, instead of only one, between every pair of piers. 



4 o GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

Beyond this the Lombard builders did not go. The spirit of 
structural invention here displayed was exhausted before the 
end of the eleventh century. The native Italian genius, with 
its classic predilections, reasserted itself more and more as 
time went on. Some fine monuments of the Lombard type 
were, it is true, erected during the twelfth century, but they 
exhibit no new features save such as were probably borrowed 
from the then growing art of Northern France. 

The beginnings of the organic Romanesque in the countries 
north of the Alps are obscure. Few important innovations in 
vaulting, and few indications of a new system growing out of 
such innovations, appear in this region before the close of the 
eleventh century. Certainly no vaulted nave comparable to that 
of St. Ambrogio of Milan is known to have been constructed 
here at so early a time. It is improbable that any of the naves 
of Northern Europe were covered with groined vaults before the 
beginning of the twelfth century. 

The most important monuments of the grand Romanesque 
architecture of Rhenish Germany as they now exist, Mayence, 
Speyer, and Worms, were all erected after this time. In these 
buildings the Lombard influence is strikingly apparent. Of the 
structural systems just noticed the alternate is the most preva- 
lent in the Rhenish churches ; but while they mainly follow the 
Lombard models, they exhibit many changes in proportions, 
and many different adjustments of structural parts, yet they do 
not develop any new features of a progressive character. The 
Rhenish architects do not appear to have been inventive builders. 
On the other hand, important structural elements of the Lom- 
bard system are often omitted in their works, as at Speyer, where 
the groin rib and the buttress are wanting. Hence the Rhenish 
Romanesque, though a noble architecture, is not important in 
the sense of having contributed largely towards the formation 
of the Gothic style ; and its many admirable qualities do not, 
therefore, concern us here. 

The Romanesque of Southern Gaul is still less important in 
any consideration of the sources of Gothic. The provinces 
bordering on the Mediterranean long retained the artistic tradi- 
tions of the brilliant Roman civilization of which they had 
been the seat ; and the numerous remains of the extensive and 
magnificent Roman monuments which had been erected here 



THE SOURCES OF GOTHIC 



4i 



naturally supplied the chief inspiration to the builders of this 
region in the Middle Ages. The principles and leading forms 
of the mediaeval buildings of Southern Gaul are thus essentially 
Roman, though features derived from other than Roman 
sources are not wanting. The larger churches, like most others 
in Western Europe, have a modified basilican plan, with a barrel 
vault, of either round or pointed section, over the nave, and with 
smaller vaults, or half-vaults, of the same form over the aisles. 
The aisles are, in many cases, so high as to preclude a clere- 
story, and thus their vaults act effectively as abutments to the 
central vault. 1 The vaulting of naves was more general in this 
region than elsewhere during the eleventh century ; but pro- 
gressive-developments were impossible in connection with the 
form of vault here used. It is true that vigorous and salient 
transverse arches strengthen these barrel vaults and divide them 
into bays, and that these, together with the archivolts, give rise 
to the use of compound piers similar to those of the Lombard 
Romanesque ; but farther than this it was impossible to go 
while retaining this form of vault. It may here be remarked 
that a provincial Roman prototype of this form of mediaeval 
structure occurs in the remains of the Baths of Diana at Nimes. 
But with the merits and defects of the Romanesque architec- 
ture of Southern Gaul we need not further concern ourselves, 
because it is mainly a survival of an ancient system, rather than 
a vital development leading on towards Gothic. The occasional 
use of the pointed arch as the generating form in the vaults of 
these churches has, indeed, been regarded by some writers as 
having a bearing on the origin of Gothic. But the pointed arch 
thus used has little structural significance, and affords nothing 
to warrant this view. 

Before taking up the more vital Romanesque of the North- 
ern provinces, we must, in order to clear the ground of all 
irrelevant types, briefly examine two other forms of mediaeval 
architecture that occur sporadically in that part of Gaul which 
lies south of the river Loire. The first of these is represented 
by only one important building, the Church of St. Philibert of 
Tournus (Saone-et-Loire), dating from the first quarter of the 
eleventh century. Here we have a nave covered with a suc- 

1 The barrel-vaulted churches of Southern France are admirably described and 
illustrated by M. Revoil, Architecture Romanedu Midi de la France. Paris, 1S73. 



42 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

cession of barrel vaults whose axes are perpendicular to the 
long axis of the building. They are carried on transverse arches 
springing from short shafts which rest on great cylindrical col- 
umns that support the main arcades and divide the nave from the 
aisles. The aisles are covered with groined vaults on transverse 
ribs. Such a system has some advantages. The vaulting of 
the nave exerts no lateral thrusts, and it admits of openings in 
the ends of the vaults like those of a clerestory. But it is pon- 
derous and inelegant, and never came into general use. This 
curious building, as shown by M. Dieulafoy, 1 resembles in its 
main features certain ancient Persian and Syrian types, and is 
supposed by this author to have had an important influence on 
the formation of Gothic by preparing the way for an organic 
subdivision into bays. Such subdivision as this goes, however, 
but little way in the direction of the Gothic system. 

The other sporadic type, distinctly an exotic, is that of the 
Church of St. Front at Perigueux (Dordogne) and its offshoots, 
the churches at Angouleme and Fontevrault, and a considerable 
group of smaller buildings in Aquitaine. St. Front is a Byzan- 
tine structure vaulted with domes on pendentives. The use of 
the pointed arch in the support of these domes has led some 
writers to suppose that this monument might be regarded as con- 
stituting a step in the direction of Gothic. But the pointed arch 
as here used has no more structural significance than it has in the 
barrel vaults of the Southern provinces. The system is iden- 
tical with that of St. Sophia of Constantinople, except that it 
lacks those features in which lay the promise of progress, chiefly 
the domical groined vault, already noticed as occurring in that 
monument. 2 Hence St. Front and the buildings derived from 
it have little relationship with the organic Romanesque out of 
which the Gothic was a natural development. 

To these comparatively inorganic types 3 of Southern France 
and of Aquitaine may be added the mixed form of architecture 
that occurs in the region lying between the extreme south and 

1 I' Art Antique de la Perse, vol. v. p. 165. 

2 For a full description of the Church of St. Front see the admirable work of 
M. F. de Verneilh, U Architecture Byzantine en France. Paris, 1851. 

3 It is unnecessary for our purpose to notice those types of Romanesque design 
in which, as in Vignory, and the original nave of St. Remi at Reims, the general 
forms and the structural arrangements are essentially those of the Christian Roman 
basilica. 



ii THE SOURCES OF GOTHIC 43 

the more northerly provinces, where a different structural 
system was in use. In the North the groined vault had been 
almost as exclusively employed from the first as had the barrel 
vault in the South. But in parts of Burgundy and Auvergne the 
architectural influences of the North and South meet and give 
rise to buildings which partake of the characteristics of both — 
that is to say, buildings in which the barrel vault and the groined 
vault are used conjointly. This mixed form of structure was 
carried out in the grandest Romanesque edifice of the Middle 
Ages, the vast. and magnificent Abbey Church of Cluny, which, 
before the erection of the modern St. Peter's at Rome, was the 
largest church edifice in the world. 1 In buildings of this class we 
have a barrel vault over the nave and groined vaulting in the 
aisles. These aisle vaults, unlike the greater part of those of 
the Southern Romanesque, are low enough to afford space for 
a clerestory. This arrangement is illogical and inherently weak, 
though by heavy walls and vigorous buttressing buildings thus 
designed were often made to stand. The Church of Cluny might 
probably have been intact to-day had it not been destroyed by 
violence during the revolution of 1788; and among the monu- 
ments which were similarly constructed two important ones, the 
Cathedral of Autun and the Church of Paray-le-Monial, have 
survived. In the Church of Notre-Dame du Port, Clermont- 
Ferrand, a similar arrangement occurs, save for the addition of 
a triforium gallery covered with half-barrel vaults which abut 
the central vault and leave no space for a clerestory. 

We may now turn our attention to those Northern types of 
Romanesque that were the immediate precursors of the Gothic. 
These are mainly confined to the provinces of Burgundy, Nor- 
mandy, and the Ile-de-France. Here the principles of the 
Lombard system reappear, and are carried out with various 
modifications and progressive changes. The type characteristic 
of Burgundy is magnificently developed in the nave of the 
Abbey Church of Vezelay, which dates from the commencement 
of the twelfth century. Here we have a uniform system with 
quadripartite vaulting in oblong compartments over the nave, 
and square vaults of the same kind in the aisles. The system 
is perfectly organic as far as it is developed ; but while vigor- 

1 For a full description of this monument see the work of M. J. Viery, V Archi- 
tecture Romane dans V Ancien Diocese a'e Macon. Paris, 1892. 



44 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

ous transverse ribs of two orders separate the vaulting com- 
partments, one from another, and longitudinal ribs span their 
narrow ends, no groin ribs occur. The absence of the groin 
rib, and the omission of triforium openings, which here, as in 
some other Romanesque buildings of the north of France, do 
not occur, show a somewhat backward character and would 
seem to indicate a Rhenish influence, though the Church of 
Laach, the Rhenish monument which Vezelay most resembles, 
is of somewhat later date. The vaulting is again of the domi- 
cal or Byzantine type, which adjusts itself as readily to the 
oblong as to the square plan. The pier has a broad pilaster- 
like member rising from the pavement and supporting the first 
order of the transverse rib, while an engaged round shaft carries 
the sub-order of the same. The longitudinal rib springs from 
a short rectangular support which rests on the triforium ledge. 
The ground-story archivolts and the transverse ribs of the 
aisles, which last, like those of the nave, are of two orders, are 
carried by supports like those of the corresponding members 
in the nave. The principles of the Lombard system are thus 
here applied to a building of the uniform type by substituting 
for the square vault of the nave an oblong one ; and although, 
from the omission of the groin rib, the design is not so com- 
pletely organic as that of a typical Lombard edifice, it is carried 
out with unprecedented precision and elegance. The general 
proportions and adjustments of the parts mark a distinct advance 
on Lombard achievement, especially in the greater elevation of 
the vaults, affording space for a well-developed clerestory. St. 
Ambrogio of Milan has, as we have seen, no clerestory, while 
the clerestory of San Michele of Pavia, in the original form of the 
building, was insignificant. But in Vezelay the clerestory is of 
ample dimensions, and greatly enhances the general effect of 
the interior. The exterior of this nave was much changed in 
appearance within a century after its erection by the addition 
of flying buttresses. The salient pilaster buttresses, with which 
alone it was originally furnished, were inadequate, and the sub- 
sequent introduction of the flying buttresses was necessary to 
maintain the stability of the structure. But in other respects 
the edifice was admirably designed for strength and permanence, 
as well as for artistic effect. 

In no part of Europe during the eleventh century was the 



THE SOURCES OF GOTHIC 



45 



activity in building greater than in Normandy. But the early 
Norman Romanesque is of the plainest type, in which the primi- 
tive provincial basilican characteristics largely persist. Mas- 
sive rectangular piers with few subordinate members, heavy 
archivolts, a low triforium if any, and a thick-walled clerestory 
with small round-headed openings characterize this type. The 
naves of these early structures were covered with timber roofs 
.only. The Abbey Church of Bernay, 1 in its original parts, 
illustrates this type. The Church of St. Gervais of Falaise, 2 
which dates from about 1050, illustrates a more advanced type, 
in which the nave is divided more completely into bays. St. 
Gervais has an engaged shaft in each pier, which rises from the 
pavement to the top of the wall of the nave. Such a shaft has no 
necessary function, in an unvaulted structure, though it may be 
used to carry the trusses of the timber roof. Shafts thus rising 
to the top of the walls are common in the Norman Romanesque 
of the eleventh century ; and they seem to be a result of unin- 
telligent copying of piers organically composed to carry vaulting 
— like those of the Lombard builders. The Normans, in fact, 
though active constructors, seem not to have been altogether 
logical designers, and not to have fully perceived the significance 
of the parts in the architectural system from which they appear 
to have derived their first notions of organic building. This 
seems to be further shown by the practice, not uncommon among 
them, of inserting an engaged shaft on the aisle side of the 
pier, in unvaulted aisles, and prolonging this shaft to the lean-to 
aisle roof — as in the Church of Notre-Dame-sur-1'Eau, Dom- 
front. 3 In designs like the foregoing the piers are uniform in 
size and composition, and the great shafts dividing the nave 
into oblong bays became very common in Normandy, though as 
yet there was no vaulting except in the aisles. 

But while the naves of Norman churches were, before the 
twelfth century, unvaulted, earlier instances of vaulting over the 
choir are not wanting. The choir, as has been remarked by M. 
Ruprich-Robert, 4 being short (rarely at this time consisting of 
more than two bays), afforded, in the great piers of the crossing 
and the heavy walls of the east end, secure abutments to the 

1 Ruprich-Robert, V Architecture Normande, vol. i. plate xi. 
% Ibid., plate xix. 3 Ibid,, plate xxii. 

4 L 'Architecture Normande, vol. i. p. 71. 



46 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

thrusts of vaulting. The early Norman builders were conse- 
quently less timid in regard to erecting vaults here than they 
appear to have been in the nave. Among extant Norman choirs 
that were thus vaulted during the second half of the eleventh 
century are those of the Abbaye-aux-Dames and the Church of 
St. Nicolas at Caen, and that of St. George at Bocherville. In 
none of these vaults do groin ribs occur, though strong transverse 
ribs are employed in all of them. In the Abbaye-aux-Dames, the 
compartments of these choir vaults are nearly square in plan, 
and the vaults are built on the Roman model with elliptical 
groins and level crowns. In St. Nicolas the compartments 
are oblong, and the cross-cells have an approximately elliptical 
section. In the St. George, Bocherville, also the compartments 
are oblong, and here the vaulting is of the domical form. 1 

The Normans seem to have made no use of groin ribs until 
they began to vault their naves in the early part of the twelfth 
century, some time after such ribs had been in use in the neigh- 
bouring province of the Ile-de-France. The first vaulted nave 
appears to have been that of the Abbaye-aux-Hommes at Caen, 
which was at first constructed with a timber roof early in the 
second half of the eleventh century. The date of this vaulting 
has not been ascertained with precision, but its character indi- 
cates that it can hardly be later than the first quarter of the 
twelfth century. It has a form that we have not before met 
with, which seems to have been suggested by the alternate 
system here employed. 2 

1 The vaulting of St. Nicolas at Caen and St. George at Bocherville, I have not 
examined at first hand. My account of them is based on the work already cited of 
M. V. Ruprich-Robert. 

2 This alternate system does not appear to have been in use north of the Alps be- 
fore the second half of the eleventh century. Then, in the Abbey Church of Jumieges, 
dating from about 1050, and here in the Abbaye-aux-Hommes, dating from 1064, it 
occurs; and in subsequent Norman buildings it became frequent. There can be 
little question that this system was, as remarked in the preceding chapter, introduced 
into Normandy through a direct influence from Lombardy. This has, however, 
been questioned. M. Ruprich-Robert {I? Architecture Normande') maintains the 
affirmative, basing his argument largely on the work of Dartein {Etude stir T Archi- 
tecture Lovibarde'), whose dates for the churches of St. Ambrogio of Milan, and San 
Michele of Pavia, have lately been disputed. M. Lefevre-Pontalis (/„' Architecture 
Religietise dans V Ancien Diocese de Soissons, etc.) discusses the theory of M. Ruprich- 
Robert and rejects it on the ground that Darteiu's dates are, in his view, untrust- 
worthy, and maintains that the nave of St. Ambrogio is a work of the twelfth century, 
and hence could not have furnished the model (as M. Ruprich-Robert supposes it to 



ii THE SOURCES OF GOTHIC 47 

The builders of the Ile-de-France seem to have been experi- 
menting with the groin rib from the beginning of the century 
if not before ; but they confined their early experiments to vaults 
of small magnitude. Whether any naves in this province had 
been covered with ribbed vaulting before the first Norman 
works of this kind on a large scale were undertaken is uncer- 
tain. But apparently no nave so large as that of the Abbaye- 
aux-Hommes had before been thus vaulted. It was therefore a 
bold undertaking, in the execution of which the inexperienced 

have done) for the Norman structures that we are considering. Sig. Cattaneo, 
however, has, as already remarked, thrown new light on the origin of the Lombard 
Romanesque, and especially upon the dates of these two leading monuments. This 
author shows (Z.' Architet/ura in Italia dal secolo VI al Mille circa, pp. 210, 21 1) 
that Dartein has erred, and seems to exhaust the subject of the dates of the various 
portions of St. Ambrogio — summing up his argument as follows : " Tutte le sues- 
poste considerazioni m' inducono a credere, che le navi odierne del Sant' Ambrogio 
sorgessero nella seconda meta. del secolo XI, e 1' atrio sul principio del seguente, 
poco prima del campanile nuovo che, come si sa, data dal 1129. Percio riassu- 
mendo, la piu probabile storia dei restauri portati alia celebre basilica penso che sia 
questa : L' arcivescovo Angilberto fra 1' 824 e 1' 859 ne allungo la parte superiore, 
construendo dai fondamenti le tre abside, e rifece assai probabilmente le antiche 
navate. L' arcivescovo Ansperto fra 1' 868 e 1' 881 compi il restauro della chiesa 
rifabbricandone il quadriportico. Nella seconda meta. del secolo XI si riedificarono le 
tre navi ed il nartece, rispettandosi le absidi di Angilberto; si costrui la cripta, la 
parte superiore del ciborio, 1' ambone, e si orno il presbiterio di stucchi, musaici e 
pitture. Intorno all' anno Iioo si riedifico il resto del quadriportico. Nel 1129 fu 
inalzato il secondo campanile, e nel 1 196 si riparo ai guasti recati all' edificio per la 
caduta di una volta della nave principale, si restauro 1' ambone danneggiato e si 
eresse a nuovo la cupola." Now if we may suppose that the nave of St. Ambrogio 
dates from the early part of the second half of the eleventh century, we may accept 
the view of M. Ruprich-Robert that the alternate system of the Abbaye-aux- Homines 
of Caen was the result of a direct influence from Lombardy, though not, perhaps, 
from the Church of San Michele of Pavia, the building thought by him to have fur- 
nished the model. This latter church is thought by Sig. Cattaneo {/bid., p. 211, 
note) to be mainly a work of the beginning of the twelfth century. M. Ruprich- 
Robert finds ground for his belief in the fact that Lanfranc, who was abbot of the 
house in Caen when the church was building, had come from Pavia. This conclu- 
sion is not necessarily weakened by the now generally accepted (though still ques- 
tionable) opinion that the nave of San Michele is a work of the twelfth century. 
For the earlier church of St. Ambrogio, which exhibits a similar system, is close to 
Pavia, and must have been well known to Lanfranc. Moreover, it can hardly be 
doubted that other monuments of the Lombard type had existed in Italy from the 
early part of the eleventh century, though the naves of such monuments are not 
known to have been vaulted until a later period. The Church of SS. Pietro e Paolo 
of Bologna affords, perhaps, an instance. The Lombard derivation of the alternate 
system of the Abbaye-aux-Hommes may then, it would seem, be considered as pretty 
well established. 



4 8 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

Norman builders may naturally have felt the need of caution. 
The design of the substructure being substantially like that of 
the Lombard models, they may be supposed to have originally 
intended to vault it in the Lombard manner ; that is, by square 
compartments, each embracing two compartments of the aisles 
as shown at A, Fig. 14, p. 39. In the original work of 1064 
the shaft of the intermediate pier, which in the Lombard proto- 
types had not risen above the triforium, was carried up, like 
those of the main piers, to the top of the wall. To prepare for 
the vaulting, these shafts had now to be cut down to a lower 
level ; and the presence of the intermediate shaft may have sug- 
gested the expediency, in view of the great height and width of 
the nave, of springing an intermediate transverse rib from it as 
a measure of precaution. Such a rib was accordingly inserted, 
and this rib, by dividing each of the lateral triangular spaces, 
of what would otherwise have been a square quadripartite vault, 
into two smaller ones, produced the sexpartite form of vault, 
which subsequently became an important type in the Gothic 
system. This vaulting is curiously formed and rudely con- 
structed. Those portions the axes of which lie in the direction 
of the long axis of the nave have level crowns, as in Roman 
vaulting ; but the groin arches, which on the Roman principle 
would be elliptical, are segments of less than half-circles. This, 
of course, somewhat distorts the vault surfaces, while at the 
springing the segmental groins necessarily form angles with 
their vertical supports. The lateral cells describe elliptical 
arches against the clerestory walls, and their axes are neces- 
sarily oblique No longitudinal ribs occur in this vaulting, but 
for the transverse ribs and the groin ribs the piers as originally 
designed provide the requisite supports. In order to prepare 
these piers to receive the ribs of the vaulting, the vault sup- 
ports of the main piers had to be slightly modified in form, as 
well as cut down. The needed modification was confined to 
the pilaster, which was shortened to a level somewhat below 
that of the springing, and a short shaft on each side of the 
central vaulting shaft was inserted to carry the groin ribs 
(a, Fig. 15). The sexpartite vault thus, as it would seem, 
fortuitously brought into existence, appears to have been the 
only important innovation made by the Norman builders ; un- 
less the rudimentary flying buttress, referred to in the pre- 



THE SOURCES OF GOTHIC 



49 



ceding chapter, be also their invention. With regard to this it 
may be said that the date of the vaulting of the Abbaye-aux- 
Dames at Caen, in connection with which such a rudimentary 
flying buttress was constructed, is uncertain ; though it was 
apparently posterior to that of the Abbaye-aux-Hommes, in the 
construction of which a half-barrel vault had been used. 1 We 




Fig. 15. — System of the Abbaye-aux-Hommes. 

shall see, however, in the next chapter, that a similar form of 
flying buttress occurs in the transitional church of St. Germer 
in the Ile-de-France, which may be of earlier date ; and, since 
the Norman architects in general showed little structural inven- 
tiveness, it is not improbable that the idea carried out in the 
buttress system of the Abbaye-aux-Dames was derived from the 
examples of the fertile designers of the Ile-de-France. 

1 Cf. V. Ruprich-Robert, U&glise Ste. THnite et V&glise St. fctienne a Caen, 
Caen, 1864, p. 37. 



5o GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

The architectural activity of the Ile-de-France during the 
eleventh century appears to have been less vigorous than that 
of Normandy. Many buildings were, indeed, erected in this 
province at this time ; but they were generally of moderate, and 
often small, dimensions and of simple design. The naves were 
hardly ever vaulted, and even over the aisles vaulting seems to 
have been rare until the latter part of the century. 1 Of the 
more primitive type of this region the Church of Rhuis (Oise) is 
a good example, which retains, for the most part, its original 
character. In this church only the apse and the easternmost 
bay of each aisle are vaulted. The plain rectangular piers 
carry arches of a single order without mouldings, and the walls 
above are broken only by small clerestory windows. Of the 
two groined vaults of the aisle compartments now extant but 
one dates from the time of the original construction, and this is 
of the Roman form. In buildings of a more advanced character, 
the archivolts of the great arcades are doubled, and the sub- 
order has a separate support incorporated with the rectangular 
pier — as in the Church of Aulchy-le-Chateau (Ainse). 2 

In the still more developed Romanesque of the Ile-de- 
France, the aisles are entirely covered with groined vaults, the 
piers are furnished with subordinate shafts, the archivolts are 
doubled, and the nave, though still having only a timber roof, 
is divided into bays by engaged shafts and pilasters. The 
nave of Morienval (Oise), dating from the second half of the 
eleventh century, and the much disfigured nave of St. Germain- 
des-Pres of Paris, in their unaltered portions, illustrate this type. 
In the vaulted aisles of Morienval the system is perfectly 
organic so far as it goes ; but since it has no groin ribs, it is 
comparatively simple. In this system the compartments are 
oblong, and the vaults, which have been reconstructed, but 
apparently retain their primitive form, are domical. Heavy 
transverse ribs divide the compartments one from another, and 
the pier has four wide pilasters with an engaged shaft on 
each (Fig. 16). 

After this time structural progress in the Ile-de-France 
became more rapid than it had been before here or elsewhere ; 
so that the final development of the organic Romanesque was 

1 Cf. Lefevre-Pontalis, Architecture Religieuse, etc., p. 41 et seq. 

2 Cf. Lefevre-Pontalis, Ibid., plate xi. 



II THE SOURCES OF GOTHIC 5I 

reached here by the beginning of the twelfth century. This 
final condition may be studied in the Church of St. Etienne of 
Beauvais. Of the primitive edifice portions only of the nave 




Fig. 16.— Morienval. 



(Fig. 45, p. 105) remain, and although this nave was several 
times remodelled in parts during the twelfth century, the charac- 
ter of the original design is clearly traceable. This is most for- 
tunate, since St. Etienne is, with, I believe, only one exception, — 
that of St. Louis of Poissy, — the only Romanesque structure 



52 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

extant on the soil of France that was unmistakably designed for 
ribbed groined vaulting over both nave and aisles. The system 
is uniform, and the vault compartments are oblong in both nave 
and aisles, measuring in the nave 5.75 x 9 metres from centre 
to centre of the piers, and in the aisles 4.45 x 5.75 metres. 
The easternmost bay of the nave is of the primitive construc- 
tion up to the clerestory level, while the piers throughout, 
together with the lower archivolts, also retain their . original 
form, though they have been repaired in parts. The original 
vaulting of the nave must have been destroyed during the 
twelfth century, while the existing vaults (of fine early Gothic 
character) were apparently constructed after a fire from which 
the building suffered in the year 11 So. 1 We are not, however, 
left in doubt concerning the character of the original vaulting; 
for the composition of the piers and the existing vaulting of 
the aisles show plainly what it must have been. Each pier has a 
pilaster with a central engaged shaft on its face, and a smaller 
shaft on either side. These members rise from the pavement, 
and that they belong to the original design is shown by the homo- 
geneous character of the bases on which they rest, and to which 
they are perfectly adjusted, and by their correspondence with 
the unaltered work on the aisle side. It is further shown by 
the high vaulting capitals (a, Fig. 45, p. 105), still in place, in the 
unaltered eastern bay. These capitals are like those of the 
primitive aisle vaulting, and are of a less advanced type than 
those which belong to the early remodelled portions of the 
edifice. That the small shaft on either side of the pilaster 
was designed to carry a groin rib, is made clear by the fact 
that its capital is set diagonally in conformity with the direction 
of such a rib. 

Thus we have in St. Etienne of Beauvais, applied to a 
uniform vaulting system, the completest carrying out of the 
Lombard idea that had yet been reached in Northern Europe, 
and one in which all the forms are greatly improved and even 
reach some degree of elegance. It seems probable that the 
original vaulting of the nave had no longitudinal rib. Such 
a rib seems hardly to have been used anywhere in the North 



1 Cf. " Beauvais et ses monuments pendant l'ere Gallo-Romaine et sous la Domi- 
nation Franque. Par l'abbe Berraud." Bulletin Monumental, vol. 27. 



THE SOURCES OF GOTHIC 



53 



so early as this, 1 and the pier includes no member for its sup- 
port. It was, however, introduced soon afterwards, and its use 
became general before the second quarter of the twelfth cen- 
tury. In the absence of the original high vaulting, we must 
confine our further examination of the system of St. Etienne 
to those compartments of the vaulted aisles in which the primi- 
tive structure remains intact. In order to appreciate the ad- 
vance here made, it may be well to compare the aisle system 
with that of the earlier nave of Morienval. In Morienval 
(Fig. 1 6), the groin a of the vault, having no rib, rises from the 
pilaster b. The transverse rib c rests on the shaft d, which 
is incorporated with the pilaster ; while the two parts of the 
double archivolt e are supported respectively by a lateral 
pilaster and an engaged shaft. To avoid excessive doming in 
the vault, the transverse rib is slightly stilted, and its supporting 
shaft is lengthened so as to bring the impost above that of the 
main archivolts. In St. Etienne (Fig. 17) the presence of the 
groin rib calls into requisition the additional shaft a in the com- 
pound pier. The elevation of the crown of the transverse rib 
is effected, in this case, wholly by stilting, hence the capitals 
of the system are all on the same level, and the shafts are all of 
the same length. The groin rib is here of a primitive type, 
being heavy, and of rectangular section with bevelled edges. 
The capitals and bases of the shafts that sustain the groins 
are, as in the nave, set diagonally so as to conform with the 
directions of those ribs — an adjustment of which the example 
had been set in the Lombard structures. The remaining 
compartments of the aisles of St. Etienne have the same 
general character, except that their groin ribs are lighter, and 
have a round instead of a rectangular section, while the capi- 
tals are of a slightly more advanced design. These last aisle 
compartments are thus apparently a little later in date. A 
pause in the works may have occurred after the easternmost 
bays were completed, or these somewhat later portions may 
be the« result of a very early reconstruction. Other changes 
wrought during the twelfth century in this most interesting 
monument, being of a Gothic character, will call for considera- 
tion in the following chapter. 

1 In the nave of Vezelay, however, a nearly contemporaneous structure, the 
longitudinal rib occurs, as we have seen, without the groin rib. 



54 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



The primitive form and the historic value of the Church 
of St. Louis of Poissy have been so far destroyed by remodel- 
lings and recent reconstructions and restorations as to render 
a complete understanding of its original character nearly im- 




possible. Hence its precise place among the monuments of 
the Ile-de-France, that were quickening with the germs of the 
Gothic spirit, can hardly be determined with fulness. It seems 
clear, however, that, though subsequent in date to St. Etienne 
of Beauvais, the earlier portions of it were less advanced in 



II THE SOURCES OF GOTHIC 55 

organic character. These portions are confined to the aisles, 
and the vaulting here has no groin ribs. Three bays of 
vaulting in the nave, however, though largely reconstructed, 
seem to retain their original form. They were probably 
built immediately after those of the aisles, and they are 
furnished with groin ribs. In the easternmost two bays 
these groin ribs are carried on shafts rising from the pave- 
ment, while in the third bay they rest on corbels at the 
impost level. The transverse ribs of this vaulting are of two 
orders, each one of which has a sustaining shaft in the pier. 
In the easternmost bays, where the groin ribs also have sup- 
porting shafts, the piers are composed of more members than 
occur in the piers of St. Etienne 5 namely, one for the sub- 
order of the transverse rib, one on either side of this for the 
first order of the same, and one again on either side for the 
groin ribs. This makes the whole pier very bulky, and it may 
have been a desire to reduce this bulk that led to the use of 
the corbels in place of shafts as supports for the groin ribs 
of the westernmost of these three bays. 1 The small Church 
of Bethesy St. Pierre, near Morienval, is also worthy of notice 
as having in its aisles domical groined vaults (Fig. 18) fur- 
nished with groin ribs. The compartments of this vaulting are 
nearly square in plan, and the forms and adjustments of the 
component arches are curious. In the transverse rib a, for 
instance, the curve is a segment of less than half a circle, 
while the archivolt, the wall arch, and the groins are semi- 
circular. This makes the crown of the vault be, taken in 
a line parallel with the long axis, more domical than need be. 
Why the low, segmental curve in the transverse rib producing 
this result should have been preferred to a semicircular one 
is not clear. The designer seems to have gone out of his 
way to make his vault domical. Taken in the line of the 
short axis, the crown de is rampant, since the archivolt / 
has a shorter span, and hence a lower crown, than the wall 
arch g. The piers are of the most primitive rectangular type, 
with two orders of pilasters on the aisle side, which, with 

1 The character and date of the Collegiate Church of Poissy are discussed by 
M. Felix de Verneilh in his work, Le Premier des Monuments Gothiques, Paris, 
1864, and by M. Anthyme Saint-Paul in " Viollet-le-Duc et son Systeme Arche- 
ologique," published in the Bulletin Monumental, 1SS0-18S1. 



56 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



responds of corresponding form, sustain the transverse and 
diagonal ribs. 

Few other vaulted Romanesque structures have survived in 
the Ile-de-France. After the beginning of the twelfth century, 
the transition into Gothic was here so rapidly accomplished 
that the larger structures of the early decades of this century 
cannot be classed as Romanesque. Our examination of the 




S Th. 



FIG. 18. — Aisle Vault of Bethesy St. Pierre. 



sources of Gothic, therefore, ends here, while we proceed, in 
the next chapter, to consider the transitional and early Gothic 
developments. 

It may here be well to define the sense in which the term 
transitional, as distinguished from Romanesque, on the one 
hand, and early Gothic, on the other, is used. Broadly speak- 
ing, the organic Romanesque, of all varieties and from first to 
last, is, as we have seen, an architecture of transition. In a 
more specific sense, what we mean by the transitional architec- 



II THE SOURCES OF GOTHIC 57 

ture of the Middle Ages is that in which the pointed arch, in 
connection with ribbed vaulting and a functional memberment 
of supports, first appears. The term transitional, in this sense, 
is applicable until the concentration and counteraction of thrusts, 
and the consequent equilibrium of the structure (latent, but un- 
developed, in the Romanesque) are fully worked out, and the 
system stands forth in its essential completeness. The fullest 
development of the Romanesque, as such, was reached in the 
vaulted nave of St. Etienne of Beauvais. The further innova- 
tions of the early twelfth century constitute the architecture of 
transition. 



CHAPTER III 

GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

I. The Beginnings of Gothic 

By France, in this chapter, and indeed throughout this book, 
is meant the France of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, 
that is, the Royal Domain of the Capetian Dynasty and portions 
of a few contiguous provinces, chiefly Champagne, Orleanais, 
Picardy, and Burgundy. To this region the early Gothic move- 
ment was confined. Indeed, the region of its earliest manifes- 
tations was circumscribed by even narrower limits, those, namely, 
of the Ile-de-France, or the area of which the larger part is 
now included in the departments of the Seine and the Oise. 
Though many of the monuments of the early Gothic art have 
perished, many others yet remain, and the beginning and course 
of development of the new style may, by examination and com- 
parison of these existing buildings, be made out with substantial 
correctness, without reference to other sources of information, 
which, in fact, hardly exist ; for such written records of build- 
ing as have been preserved are wholly devoid of information 
respecting architectural forms and methods of construction. 
We are compelled, therefore, to rely upon independent study 
of the buildings themselves. 

We have seen that the last step in organic building that can 
be called Romanesque was reached in the nave of St. Etienne 
of Beauvais. Before further advance could be made it was 
necessary that some better means of diminishing, of concen- 
trating, and of counteracting the thrusts of vaulting should be 
found. Such means were, as before remarked, at length dis- 
covered in the use of the pointed arch, together with a new 
adjustment of the ribs and a new form of abutment. It has, 
until recently, been commonly thought by continental writers 
that the earliest extant instance of the incipient Gothic style is 
found in what remains of the Abbey Church of St. Denis, as it 

58 



chap, in GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 59 

was built under the administration of the Abbot Suger. This, 
however, is not the case ; for not only have we in the much 
earlier Abbey Church of Morienval an instance which exhibits, 
though in a halting manner, some of the principles that are 
carried out with such remarkable skill in St. Denis, but a con- 
siderable group of early buildings have survived in which various 
intermediate steps of progress may be traced. 1 

The first step in the final transformation of the Romanesque 
into the Gothic style appears to have been taken in the rudi- 
mentary apsidal aisle that was added to the Church of Morien- 
val at the end of the eleventh or the beginning of the twelfth 
century. The vaulting system of the nave aisles of this inter- 
esting church has already been described in the preceding 
chapter, but the aisle we have now to consider presents new 
features of great importance. It has four compartments of 
vaulting, which are provided with diagonal ribs, pointed archi- 
volts, 2 and imperfectly pointed transverse arches. Of these 
transverse arches, however, in the compartment that I have 
chosen for illustration, one has no rib, while the other has a 
much stilted and very heavy round one. The diagram (Fig. 19) 



1 Some of these buildings were faithfully described long ago by M. Woillez 
(Archeologie des Monuments Religieux de I'Ancien Beauvais, etc. Par le Dr. Eug. 
J. Woillez. Paris, 1839- 1849), but their dates, relationships, and structural principles 
were little understood at that time; and little attention of a fruitful kind was drawn 
to them by the admirable work of M. Woillez. More recently these, and many other 
buildings of like character, have been made the subject of careful examination and 
comparison by a highly competent writer on medkeval monuments, M. Eug. Lefevre- 
Pontalis, whose admirable work, already referred to (p. 46, note), is all that can be de- 
sired in the way of clear and accurate description. But the illustrations to this work, 
though admirable as far as they go, leave, in common with most books which aim 
to describe buildings, much to be desired, since they do not completely exhibit 
the structure of each monument represented, which can be done only by giving in 
each case at least three projections, — plan, cross-section, and longitudinal section. 

2 Three of these archivolts are pointed and one is round. The report of the 
Congres Archeologique de France for the year 1S77 thus alludes to this apse : "Nous 
voudrions aussi degager de l'epoque ogival certains eglises ou, malgre l'ogive et meme 
la nervure, on trouve dans les moulures, dans les colonnes ou dans quelques disposi- 
tions generates, des formes qui rappellent par trop encore soit le XI e siecle, soit les 
premiers rudiments de la transition. Le chceur de l'eglise de Morienval merite a cet 
egard d'etre cite tout le premier : la nervure et l'ogive avaient ete fort peu prati- 
quees lorsqu'il fut construit, et peut-etre, ou plutot selon tout probability, c'est la que 
les habitants du Valois virent pour la premiere fois ces germes feconds d'un nouvel 
art de batir." 



6o 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



illustrates the form and the structural members of this vault, 1 
which is marked a on the reduced plan of the apse given at A. 
It will be seen that the narrow archivolt a in the plan B, whose 
elevation is given at a', is pointed in order to bring its crown up 
to nearly the same level as that of the wider-spanned round arch 
b, whose elevation is given at b' ; and that the transverse arch c, 
situated at b in the plan A, is more acutely pointed for the same 
reason ; while the transverse arch d assumes the form of an 




irregular ellipse. That structural exigencies alone led to the use 
of the pointed arch there can thus hardly be a doubt, and this is 
further manifest from the distorted shapes of the arches c and d. 
These distortions clearly result from the position and the form 
of the longitudinal ridge of the vault. This ridge has to pass 
through the point of intersection of the diagonals, and to follow 
the curve of the apse. The point of intersection is not midway 
between the inner and outer sides of the compartment, but is, 

1 I am indebted for this diagram to Mr. G. F. Newton, who kindly took the pains 
to go for me from Paris to Morienval, and secure the data which my own notes had 
not fully included. 



in GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 61 

as shown in the diagram, considerably to one side of the centre; 
and thus the crowns of the end arches, which are necessarily 
in the line of the ridge, are brought to one side rather than over 
the centres of their bases. The curved form given in plan to 
the diagonal ribs seems to show an effort to avoid the extreme 
one-sided position of the longitudinal ridge which would have 
resulted had they been straight. The natural way to construct 
such ribs would be in planes giving straight lines on the plan ; 
but this would have made the inequality of magnitude in the 
transverse cells e and /, great even now, much greater than it 
is. The builders wished to diminish this inequality as much 
as possible, and hence, apparently, they curved the diagonals as 
much as they dared ; but, since the curved plan renders them 
more difficult to construct, and less secure when completed, 
they did not dare to curve them much. We shall meet with 
this curved diagonal rib in other early apsidal vaults, for the 
builders did not yet see that, on the new principles which they 
were developing, the intersection of the groins could be placed 
in the centre of the vault without curving them. More expe- 
rience soon enabled them to increase the curve so as to bring 
the intersection nearer this centre, until, at length, after a 
variety of adjustments of curved diagonals the final Gothic 
form, in which the curve disappears, was reached. 1 

It will be noticed that the inner branch of the heavy trans- 
verse rib has to penetrate the wall at the impost in order to 
rest on the column that supports the main archivolts. This, 
of course, carries its crown inward beyond the axis of the vault, 
a circumstance which may have had some influence in causing 
the one-sided position of the longitudinal ridge. That is to 
say, it may have been from this cause, rather than from caution 
against excessive curvature in the diagonal ribs, that the ridge 
was brought so far to one side. But this .ridge is not placed 
so far inward as the transverse rib would naturally carry it ; 
and a curious evidence of effort to reduce to a minimum the dis- 
tortions that necessarily result from the fact that the crown of 
the transverse rib is not in a line passing through the inter- 

1 It is possible that the idea of the curved groin in this early ribbed vaulting of 
apsidal aisles was partly derived from the groins of annular groined vaults without 
ribs, like those of Clermont-Ferrand, where the curve necessarily results from the 
forms of the interpenetrating surfaces. 



62 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

section of the diagonals, and concentric with the axis of the 
aisle, is shown in the adjustment of the arch of the vault to 
this rib. Had the crown of the vault surface been made to coin- 
cide with the crown of the extrados of the rib, it would have 
carried the longitudinal ridge still further inward than it actu- 
ally is, or else it would have broken the line of the ridge in 
a very awkward manner. This result was avoided by allowing 
the rib to be embedded at the crown, while the ridge of the vault 
is kept in the line passing through the intersection of the diago- 
nals. These awkward forms, especially that of the end arch c, 
are so plainly the result of a groping struggle with the diffi- 
culties of vaulting a curved oblong area, that they seem to show 
beyond question that the pointed arch was not introduced from 
aesthetic preference, but that it was naturally evolved in the 
course of constructive experiment. When the idea of its utility 
was fully grasped, means of avoiding unsightly distortions were 
soon found, and its value from an artistic point of view was 
promptly recognized. 

The interest of the vault of Morienval lies chiefly in this ex- 
perimental embodiment of new principles as yet imperfectly 
apprehended. The idea of the structural use of the pointed arch, 
in connection with an independent system of ribs as a frame- 
work for vaulting, was here taking form in the minds of the 
builders. Incomplete and awkward as is the system thus 
tentatively worked out, we have in this monument a type of 
vault construction such as had been before unknown ; a type 
that already contains some of the most important principles of 
Gothic vaulting The apse of Morienval may therefore be 
regarded as the first step known to us in the distinctly Gothic 
development of France. The full value, and far-reaching con- 
sequences, of what was here rudely accomplished were not at 
once recognized, but everything was sure in time to follow 
after such a beginning. Figure 20 1 gives a perspective view of 
this vault as seen from within the choir. 

The initiative of Morienval seems not to have been immedi- 
ately followed to any considerable extent ; and of other extant 
buildings nearly contemporaneous with its apse, only a few can be 
regarded as constituting links in the chain of structural progress. 

1 Figure 20 is from a photograph kindly furnished me by M. C. Enlart of the 

Ecole des Chattes, Paris. 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



63 



The aisle vaulting of the neighbouring Church of Bethesy St. 
Pierre, for instance, which was constructed apparently at about 
the same epoch, is, as we have already seen (p. 55), Romanesque 
rather than transitional Gothic. For while the profiling of the 
vault ribs is of a slightly more advanced character, no innova- 




FlG. 20. — Apsidal Aisle of Morienval. 



tions on Romanesque principles of vaulting occur. The same 
may be said of the diminutive Church of Noel St. Martin, near 
Villeneuve-sur-Verberie (Oise). The vaulting in this case, 
however, has one feature worthy of notice that does not appear 
in either Morienval or Bethesy, namely, the longitudinal rib. 
This member (which exists, as we have seen in the Lombard 
vaulting of St. Ambrogio of Milan) does not occur in any other 



64 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

of the French constructions thus far considered. The portion 
of this interesting monument which here concerns us is the east 
end only, — which is covered with a single quadripartite vault 
on an oblong plan. The arches of this vault are all round ex- 
cept the one on the western side of the compartment — which 
appears to be an alteration of a later epoch, and belongs to the 
developed Gothic vault which covers the area over the crossing 
of the nave and transept. There is hence nothing here of a 
transitional character, though, together with Bethisy, it has 
been recently cited by so high an authority as M. Louis Gonse 1 
among other supposed transitional buildings. 

Among the truly transitional buildings nearest in date to 
Morienval, the first in importance is, perhaps, the nave of the 
village church of Bury, near Creil (Oise). We have in Bury a 
more systematic use of the pointed arch, which exhibits progress, 
while, at the same time, the signs of inexperience and uncer- 
tainty are still apparent. 2 The system is uniform with quadri- 
partite vaulting, the compartments of the nave being square, or 
nearly so, while those of the aisles are necessarily of oblong 
rectangular form. The aisle vaults are especially noteworthy. 
Their arches are all pointed, and all except the wall arch are 
provided with ribs. The transverse ribs are excessively heavy 
and resemble those of Morienval, though a shallow gorge, 
instead of a bevel, is worked on their edges. The oblong 
form of the compartment gives great inequality in the spans of 
the arches, but the ends of the cells of the vault, which would 
naturally under such conditions differ greatly in altitude, are 
brought to a common level in a curious manner. The end of the 
further cell (Figs. 21 and 22) does not follow the extrados of 
the transverse rib, which is here also an archivolt of the tran- 
sept, but its crown is raised considerably higher, giving a lancet 
form, and leaving a portion of the transept wall over the rib 
exposed to view ; while the nearer transverse rib (whose extrados 
is oddly rounded off at the top) is much stilted and loaded with 
vertical masonry composed of rudely cut vonssoirs. In this 

1 L'Art Gothiqiie. Paris, 1890. 
^ 2 The date of Bury is thought by M. Lefevre-Pontalis (" Etude sur la date de 
l'Eglise de Saint-Germer," Bibliotheque de V&cole des Ckartes, vol. xlvi.) to be 
certainly posterior to 1125. It can hardly, however, be much later than this; for the 
longitudinal rib is still wanting in its vaulting, and the profiling and execution are of 
a very primitive character. 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



65 



rough way the crowns of the narrow arches are brought to nearly 
the same level that is reached by those which span the longer 
sides of the vault. 1 

The rounding off of the crown of the arch of the vault itself, 
a repetition of the form given to the crown of the arch of the 
narrow cell of Morienval, looks like a survival of the Roman- 




1 In the first edition of this book it was mistakenly affirmed that early Gothic 
vaults are always much domed because the groin arches naturally reach to a higher 
level than the other arches of the vault. This has been generally maintained, and 
even so trustworthy a writer as M. Lefevre-Pontalis makes, in his recent admirable 
work, V Architecture Religieuse, etc., p. 106, the following statement : " Pendant 
quelque temps encore la clef des doubleaux fut toujours placee beaucoup plus bas 
que celle de la croisee d'ogives." Not only, however, have the aisle vaults of Bury 
the form described in the text, but even in Morienval the side arches are but slightly 
lower than those of the groins, while in the choir of St. Germer, as we shall presently 
see, the crowns of all the vaulting arches are on about the same level; and it would 
be easy to cite many other instances of the same form of vault in buildings of this 
epoch. But while this is often the case, it is also true that the vault surfaces are 
invariably arched more or less from rib to rib, and their ridges are never quite level, 
F 



66 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



esque habit 1 — as if the builders could not readily bring them- 
selves to accept the perfectly pointed form. The extrados of 
the great archivolt, being of two orders, rises above the level 
of the intersection of the diagonals, the same altitude is given to 
the arch against the wall, and hence the ridges of the cross-cells 



VU^Mktti 





FlG. 22. — Bury, Vaulting of the Aisle. 



1 Another, and apparently much earlier, instance of the same treatment of the 
narrow cell of an oblong vault occurs in the Romanesque Church of Chatel-Censoir 
(Yonne) figured by M. Enlart in his instructive pamphlet entitled Notes sur les 
Sculptures executces apres la pose du XI e au XIII e Steele. Paris, 1895. The 
vaulting here has no groin ribs, and the general character of the work is that of the 
eleventh century. If this vault be a part of the original construction, it affords an 
instance of the approximation to the form of the pointed arch antedating that of 
Morienval. 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



67 



rise from the centre of the vault to the crowns of the archivolt 
and longitudinal wall arch respectively, instead of descending 
from the centre as they generally do. Though the longitudinal 
rib is still lacking, and the whole construction shows inexperi- 




Burv, Vaulting of the Nave. 



ence, this vault marks an advance on Morienval. In the nave 
(Fig. 23) we have the general scheme of St. Etienne of Beauvais 
repeated with pointed arches in the vaulting — even the groin 
ribs being pointed. 1 This is apparently one of the earliest 

1 The groin ribs, as well as the transverse ribs, are not seldom pointed in very 
early, as well as in later, Gothic vaults. 



6S GOTHIC ARCHI1ECTURE chap. 

extant vaulted naves of transitional character. The great tran- 
sept arch of two orders, like the corresponding arch in the aisle 
vault, is not stilted, but its crown is built up by superimposed 
masonry, laid in the manner of voussoirs, and tapered off to 
nothing on the haunches, to a more pointed form with which 
the surface of the vault conforms ; while the nearer transverse 
rib is stilted, and the vaulting here is fitted accurately to its 
extrados. The longitudinal rib is again omitted, and the form 
of the vault differs only in its pointed arches from the Roman- 
esque vault. This constitutes, indeed, a considerable difference, 
but other important changes were yet to be made before the 
distinctively Gothic form of nave vaulting could be produced. 
The pointed arches here, however, greatly diminish the thrusts 
and give a new expression to the whole interior. 1 The nearly 
contemporaneous Church of Cambronne affords another in- 
stance of a transitional vaulted nave. It does not, however, 
much differ in essential points from Bury, though its piers are 
more simple in composition, having no pilaster incorporated 
with the vaulting shafts. Another construction of. this epoch 
in which the vaulting closely resembles that of the nave of 
Bury is the gallery over the porch of the neighbouring Church 
of St. Leu d'Esserent. Here the transverse ribs, of two 
heavy orders, are loaded as in the aisle of Bury, to raise the 
surface of the vault and give it a more acutely pointed form. 
The masonry of the load is roughly laid with irregularly inclined 
beds, as shown in Fig. 24. These vaults are very irregular in 
form, but this irregularity is apparently not yet governed by 
any principle ; it is the result, rather, of inexperienced work- 
manship. In one cell a sharply pointed arch is traced by the 
vault against the enclosing wall, while in another the form of 
the arch so traced is nearly segmental. A more advanced in- 
stance of vaulting occurs in the small Church of Berzy-le-Sec 
(Ainse) near Soissons. A nearly square vault adjoining the 
half-domed apse of this church has a full system of ribs — 
transverse, diagonal, and longitudinal. The transverse and 
longitudinal ribs are pointed, but not enough so to raise their 

1 M. Lefevre-Pontalis {V Architecture Religieuse, etc. p. 204) thinks that the nave 
vaulting of Bury was added apres coup. If this be so, it matters little; for if not as 
early in actual construction as the rest of the system to which it is adjusted, it is mani- 
festly as earlv in idea. 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



69 



crowns to the level of the intersection of the diagonals, and 
hence, as there is no stilting, the vault is very domical in form. 
The presence of the longitudinal rib, together with a consider- 
able degree of skill and precision of workmanship, seems to mark 
this construction as posterior to the others thus far noticed, and 
we may regard it as illustrating a slightly more advanced stage 
of progress. That it is subsequent to Bury, yet not far removed 




Fig. 24.— St. Leu d'Esserent. 



from it in date, would appear from the character of its profiling, 
as well as from its greater mechanical perfection. 1 Still an- 
other of the small monuments quick with the germs of Gothic 
life that belong to the early decades of the twelfth century is 
the curious and puzzling choir of St.-Martin-des-Champs in 



1 I do not profess to establish the chronological order of these very early buildings 
with any absolute sureness. The precise order is very uncertain; but while it is so, 
an illustration of the general progress of Gothic development may be none the less 
correctly gathered from them. 



70 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

Paris. 1 It exhibits, together with very primitive groin vaults, 
separated by heavy transverse ribs, in the aisles, a celled apsidal 
vault on ribs which may very possibly be the earliest rudimen- 
tary instance of that form of apsidal vaulting which ultimately 
became one of the most magnificent features of Gothic design. 
Prior to this the apse had hardly been covered in other than 
the ancient manner — that is, with a half-dome. At Berzy-le- 
Sec, before mentioned (p. 68), this half-dome has two salient ribs 
converging on the crown of the transverse rib of the adjoining 
rectangular vault. These ribs have no necessary structural 
function, and their presence seems inexplicable unless it may be 
supposed that they were introduced in order to harmonize the 
half-dome with the ribbed groined vault of the rectangular com- 
partment. But here in St.-Martin-des-Champs they were used 
structurally to divide the apsidal vault into the three gore- 
shaped cells (Fig. 25). These cells have rounded sections, are 
but slightly developed, and their crowns fall away from the 
centre of the vault almost as steeply as the surface of a half- 
dome ; but they constitute a new departure and lead to a rapid 
transformation of apsidal vaulting. Doubtless others of the 
many small churches that are still numerous in the provincial 
towns and small villages of the Ile-de-France may be found to 
show progressive features akin to those already noticed ; but 
hardly any further advance of importance can be looked for in 
buildings on a small scale. 

The earliest extant building in which the new system is 
considerably developed appears to be the Abbey Church of St- 
Germer-de-Fly, near Beauvais. This remarkable church, which 
is exceptionally harmonious in style throughout, having been 
entirely constructed during the twelfth century and very little 
altered, remains to-day substantially intact. It is a church of 
considerable magnitude, and its erection evidently called forth 
the best artistic capacity, constructive ingenuity, and mechani- 
cal skill, of a time when, with enlarging resources, the creative 
imagination was stimulated by a growing recognition of the 
possibilities of the new principles, and by an eagerness to pro- 
duce enduring monuments worthy of the beliefs and aspirations 

1 For a full account of this apse see the " Etude sur le Chceur de l'Eglise de St.- 
Martin-des-Champs a Paris," by M. Lefevre-Pontalis. Bibliotheque de I'Ecole des 
Charles, vol. xlvii. 



in GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 71 

of the builders. A comparison of this work with that of 
other buildings of the same region dating from the first half 
of the twelfth century seems to justify the belief that the east 
end of it was erected not much later than the year 1130. 1 We 
may begin our examination of this most instructive monument 
with what is certainly the earliest part of it, — the vaulting 
of the apsidal aisle. Here we find a great advance on the 




Fig. 25. — Apse of St. Martin-des-Champs. 



apsidal aisle of Morienval. The scale of the work is much 
larger, and the marks of groping experiment and executive 
awkwardness, so conspicuous in Morienval, are but slightly 
apparent. The vault and its supporting members exhibit a sur- 
prising degree of constructive knowledge and of mechanical 
skill in the use of new forms, as well as power in beautiful 

1 M. Eug. Lefevre-Pontalis, " Etude sur la Date del' Eglise de Saint-Germer," Bib- 
liotlieque de V Ecole des Charles, vol. xlvi. p. 492, says : " Nous croyons pouvoir 
fixer l'epoch de sa construction d'une maniere tres precise entre les annees 1 130 
et 1 150." He then produces evidence in favour of the earlier date. 



72 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



architectural design. Was this the first apsidal vault con- 
structed after that of Morienval? The question may not be 
answered. It would seem, however, that more than one experi- 
mental structure must have intervened. It is hardly conceiv- 
able that a composition so beautiful and so perfect should have 
been produced without many previous trials; but no earlier 




Fig. 26. — St. Germer-de-Fly. 



vaults of the kind seem to have survived. It therefore appears 
safe to suppose that after Morienval we have in St. Germer the 
oldest existing apsidal aisle vaulted on the rudimentary Gothic 
principles. In this vaulting (Figs. 26 and 27) we find a complete 
system of ribs, in which few distorted lines or awkward adjust- 
ments occur, sustaining a slightly domical vault of elegant form. 
The diagonal ribs still follow, in plan, the curved lines that are 
naturally produced by the cross-penetrations of an annular 



GOTH rC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



73 



groined vault, though the form here, as in Morienval, differs 
in other respects from that of a geometrically generated vault 
— as will be explained farther on. The intersection of the diag- 
onals is now at or near the centre of the compartment (a, Fig. 
26), the inner side of the transverse rib is not embedded, as in 
Morienval, at the impost, and each rib has its own supporting 
shaft in the compound piers and responds, except the inner 




Fig. 27. 



Ml- 

Apsidal Aisle of St. Germer-de-Fly. 



branch of the diagonal which rests on the capital of the shaft 
that carries the transverse rib. The small chapel which opens 
out of this bay, seen in the illustration (Fig. 27) to the left 
of the further respond, is worthy of notice as having a vault 
somewhat resembling that of the apse of St.-Martin-des-Champs, 
while it shows some advance on that design. In plan {b, Fig. 26) 
it is a segment of less than half a circle, and the vault is divided 
into three cells by two ribs converging on the crown of the arch 
that separates the chapel from the aisle. This vault is rendered 



74 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

less domical than that of St. Martin by the stilting (Fig. 27) of 
the wall arches. These wall arches still, however, retain the semi- 
circular form, and the window opening is likewise round arched 
in the plainest Romanesque manner. These primitive features, 
together with the curved plan of the diagonal ribs in the aisle 
compartment, and the robust, though not inelegant, proportions 
of the whole design, appear to justify the belief that the work 
is anterior to that of St. Denis ; and thus an important link in 
the chain of structural progress leading from Morienval to the 
work of Suger. 

Passing into the choir, the eye is met by what we have good 
reason to believe was the first great Gothic apse (Plate I) ever 
constructed. Its lofty vaults, its 
stately piers, and its superimposed 
arcades combine to produce an im- 
pression of great beauty. The vault 
of this apse is divided into five cells 
by strong and richly ornamented 
ribs that converge on a centre against 
the crown of the transverse rib of the 
adjoining rectangular vault of the 
choir. The wall arches (of unusual 
thickness because the clerestory wall 
is thinner than the wall beneath) are 
stilted and pointed, and their crowns 
rise to a height a little above that 
at which the converging ribs meet. Thus the domical form 
of the vault as a whole, which is so excessive in St.-Martin-des- 
Champs, and is still so considerable in the apsidal chapel of this 
same building just noticed, is avoided. But the crowns of the cells 
are slightly arched, and their surfaces are in all parts sensibly 
domical. The Gothic apsidal vault is thus already developed 
here with substantial fulness. The piers of the apsidal system 
are, on the ground story, composed like those of the apse of 
Morienval, with the addition of three shafts for the high vault- 
ing. They each consist of a core composed of square-edged 
members, the whole having a wedge-shaped section with curved 
inner and outer sides conforming with the curve of the apse, 
and engaged round shafts to support the various archivolts 
and vaulting arches (Fig. 28). The ground-story members are 




Plate L 




APSE OF ST. GERMER-DE-FLY. 
Second quarter of twelfth Century. 



in GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 75 

crowned by a group of capitals, but the high vaulting shafts rise 
unbroken to the springing of the vaults. The abaci of these 
capitals conform in plan with the trapezoidal section of the 
pier (Fig. 29), and thus a conoidal or a twisted intrados, which 
would result in the archivolt from the use of the square abaci, 
is avoided. 1 The main vaulting shafts are proportioned in size 
to the ribs which they respectively support, they are compactly 
grouped, and are banded by the triforium string, and again at 
the level of the abaci of the triforium capitals. This banding 
gives a sense of secure in- 
corporation with the pier, 
and is, at the same time, 
pleasant to the eye. The 
wall ribs are stilted by small 
shafts resting on the clere- 
story string, but owing to 
the great size of the con- 
verging ribs, against which 
they are closely placed, they 
do not fall directly upon the 
corresponding members in 
the sustaining shaft group 
below. The clerestory string 
is of unusual character, con- FlG " 29< 

sisting of a projecting ledge carried on corbels, and forming 
the abaci of the capitals of the smaller vaulting shafts (Fig. 
327, p. 80). 

The vaulting system of St. Germer is uniform throughout. 
The compartments are oblong, and the execution is skilful in 
all parts. The vaults have the perfectly Gothic form which will 
be explained farther on, though the ribs are unusually heavy. 
In the choir (an exceptionally short one, having but a single 
bay) the eastern branches of the diagonal ribs are not provided 
with supporting shafts, but are carried on corbels fashioned into 
the forms of bullocks' heads, and placed just above the impost 
of the transverse rib (Fig. 30). This is an awkward arrange- 
ment, though it is at the same time an interesting instance of 
the manner in which structural difficulties were frankly over- 

1 Cf. Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Voute, p. 490. The impost of the apse of Morienval 
has the same trapezoidal form, and it is frequent in Gothic apses of all epochs. 




76 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



come by the readiest and least objectionable means. To have 
introduced an additional shaft for the support of this rib would 
have given an unsymmetrical form to the pier, which would have 
been still more awkward. In later Gothic designs the apsidal 
vault ribs do not, as we shall see, converge on the crown of the 
transverse rib of the choir, 
but on a point farther east- 
ward. An additional rib is 
then inserted on each side, 
springing from the eastern- 
most piers and abutting the 
thrusts of the other ribs. In 
such cases a shaft is inserted 
to carry the additional rib, 
and a corresponding shaft on 
the opposite side carries the 
groin rib of the choir vault, 
which is here carried on a 
corbel. In other early sys- 
tems, where the apsidal vault- 
ing is designed like this of 
St. Germer, the easternmost 
choir vault is made tripartite 
(as will be explained farther 
on), as in the Cathedral of 
Noyon. When this is the 
case, no groin ribs, of course, 
have to be provided for in the 
easternmost pier, and no 
awkwardness of arrangement 
is produced. Throughout 
the rest of the building the 
diagonal ribs are supported 
on separate shafts rising from 
the pavement. 

It is especially worthy of notice that these vaults of St. 
Germer, the earliest Gothic vaults on a large scale, have the 
oblong form with the crowns of all their sustaining ribs at 
nearly the same level. We shall find this to be the case fre- 
quently, though (as already remarked, p. 65, note) it has gener- 




Fig. 30. — St. Germer. 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



77 



ally been supposed that these characteristics belong exclusively 
to the more advanced stages of Gothic construction. 

St. Germer has a vaulted triforium gallery — apparently the 
first (in Gothic buildings) of that series of such galleries which 
assume their grandest development in the Cathedral of Paris. 
This feature is, of course, derived from Lombard and Norman 
Romanesque monuments such as St. Ambrogio of Milan and 
the Abbaye-aux-Hommes at Caen. Here, curiously, it retains 




FiU. 31. — Triforium Gallery of St. Germer-de-Fly. 



the Romanesque form in all its structural parts. Its groined 
vaulting is of the most primitive type derived from the Roman 
models with the addition of strong transverse ribs separating 
the compartments from one another, as shown in Fig. 31. But 
the internal openings (as shown in the general view of the apse, 
Plate I), though round arched, are in other respects of early 
Gothic character. They are each divided by coupled shafts 
into two smaller openings spanned by a larger arch, and their 
tympanums are pierced each with a circular opening, in some 
cases cusped, in others variously ornamental. These are re- 
markably early instances of compound openings and piercings, 



7 8 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

such as are not often met with until after the middle of the 
twelfth century. 

The presence of the primitive groined vault, and. the round 
arch in the internal openings, of this triforium, in singular con- 
trast to the advanced character of the rest of the design, may, 
perhaps, be accounted for as a result of embarrassment arising 
from inexperience in the erection of a high vaulted structure. 
Having established the ground-story aisle with Gothic vaulting 
of necessarily considerable elevation, these unpractised builders 
may well have felt that to place a vaulted gallery of the same 
character over it would raise the clerestory dangerously high — 
the expedient of meeting the high vault thrusts by external 
flying buttresses being yet unknown. They may therefore 
have felt obliged to use the Roman form of groined vault, the 
lowest that can be constructed, necessitating the round arch in 
the triforium arcade. But this and all other explanations of the 
puzzling forms often met with in the monuments of past ages, 
concerning which we have no precise information, must be 
understood to be conjectural ; though in some cases, as in this 
one, the evidence appears to have almost the force of certainty. 
Over a vaulted gallery there must, of course, be a second tri- 
forium. This, in St. Germer, was formerly pierced with up- 
right rectangular openings — one in each bay. These have been 
walled up, but their framing mouldings still remain, so that the 
original design is entirely preserved from the pavement to the 
crown of the vault. 

In the structural features of St. Germer thus far noticed 
we have found only improvement in the use of forms and 
principles that had been more or less imperfectly developed 
in smaller and earlier constructions. But we now come to 
a feature that is entirely new and of the greatest impor- 
tance, namely, the rudimentary flying buttress. On the out- 
side of the clerestory only a feeble buttress in the form of 
an engaged column appears; but the thickness of the pier 
is considerable, the wall of the clerestory is heavy, and the 
wall arches of the vault are unusually deep. These com- 
bined members offer in themselves strong resistance to the 
vault thrusts. The builders appear, however, to have lacked 
confidence in their power without further reenforcement se- 
curely to maintain the stability of the system. They accord- 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



79 



ingly resorted to the novel expedient of springing half-arches 
from the tops of the outer piers against the internal piers 
beneath the timber roof of the triforium. Though weakly con- 
structed, ineffectively adjusted, and hidden from view, these are 
true flying buttresses in rudimentary form — features which soon 
after develop into the most essential and the most conspicuous 
of those which make up the external system of the Gothic 
building. Figure 32, a section through one side of the choir, 
will illustrate the whole structural system. This concealed 
flying buttress suggests another possible reason for the Roman- 
esque form of the triforium. In order to get the necessary 
space for the flying buttress beneath the aisle roof, the upper 
triforium had to be of considerable height, and if the vaulted 
triforium gallery had been constructed in the Gothic manner, it 
would either have diminished this height or raised the clere- 
story to a level which, as already remarked, the inexperienced 
builders may have. thought would be unsafe. 

Externally this building exhibits no Gothic character what- 
ever. Its plain walls, small round-arched openings, and shallow 
buttresses are thoroughly Romanesque. Some French writers 
have therefore supposed that the Gothic features of the interior 
constitute a partial reconstruction of the edifice executed at a 
time considerably subsequent to that when the church was 
originally built. 1 But a close examination of the structure 
shows it to be homogeneous throughout, so that however dis- 
similar in form, the inside and the outside of the building can 
hardly be considered other than the work of one epoch and 
parts of one whole. This want of agreement between the in- 
terior and the exterior is a marked characteristic of most early 
Gothic monuments ; and is an interesting evidence of the mode 
of the Gothic evolution which begins with the vaulting of the 
interior, where the necessity for structural innovations was first 
felt. In no other building is the fact that the Gothic style was 
primarily a structural development more clearly apparent than 
in St. Germer. The arches are pointed only where the mechani- 
cal exigencies of the vaulting have called for arches of this form. 

1 M. A. de Dion advances this theory {Bulletin Monumental, vol. lii. pp. 
12-22) and supports it with arguments that would seem strong were it not for other 
considerations overlooked by this writer, some of which were urged by M. Lefevre- 
Pontalis, in a rejoinder to M. de Dion (appended to the latter gentleman's article). 



8o 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



They occur in the arcades of the ground story and clerestory — 
where they have to perform the function of vault ribs as well as 




Fig. 32. — Section of System of St. Germer-de-Fly. 

of archivolts — and in the transverse and longitudinal ribs, but 
not elsewhere. 



in GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 81 

The Church of St. Maclou of Pontoise affords evidence of 
further progress in the vaulting of apsidal aisles. This edifice, 
though considered by so high an authority as M. Lefevre-Pon- 
talis to be posterior to Suger's apse of St. Denis, 1 exhibits fea- 
tures which seem to justify the belief that it is of an earlier 
epoch. The round arch is here retained in the wall ribs, the 
profiling of the diagonal ribs is primitive, the pointed section 
(like that of St. Etienne of Beauvais) occurs in some of the 
vaulting shafts, and the capitals and bases are of early type. 
These characteristics, though not necessarily affording conclu- 
sive evidence, would appear to indicate that the work is earlier 
than St. Denis. And further confirmation of this view is found 
in the peculiar arrangement of the ribs, whereby each compart- 
ment of the aisle, and the chapel which opens out of it, are 
united under one vault (Fig. 33). The arch ^(Fig. 26, p. 72), which 
in St. Germer separates the chapel vault from that of the aisle, 
is here omitted. In place of the two ribs which in the chapel 
of St. Germer converge on the crown of the arch c, we have, in 
St. Maclou, a single rib of greater length reaching forward into 
the aisle to the intersection of the diagonals of its vaulting. A 
further innovation is noticeable here in the forms of the diago- 
nals themselves, which, as shown in the figure, are straight in 
plan, instead of being curved as in Morienval and St. Germer. 
Thus all survival of forms growing out of ancient modes of 
vaulting by interpenetrating geometrical surfaces have disap- 
peared, and the skeleton of ribs wholly determines the shape 
of the vault. It yet remained, however, to find a way, while 
avoiding the curved diagonal, to more nearly equalize the areas 
of the - several triangular cells which are here, owing to the 
straight direction given to the diagonals, very unequal in size. 

This was accomplished in the Church of St. Denis as it was 
rebuilt under the administration of the Abbot Suger, and conse- 
crated in the year 1 140. The greater part of Suger's church 
has been destroyed, but among the portions that have survived 
are the apsidal aisles and the radial chapels. These have been 
preserved in excellent condition, and they exhibit a surprising 
architectural advance. The design is more elaborate than that 
of any building thus far considered, and it is on a larger scale. 

1 Monographie de r£glise St. Maclou Je Pontoise, Taris, iSSS, p. 99. 
G 



82 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



The aisles are double and foreshadow the vast and magnificent 
aisles of Paris, Chartres, and Amiens. The work shows few 
signs of hesitation or experiment, and bespeaks the sureness 
and executive precision of builders who had already attained a 
high degree of understanding and skill. Here (Fig. 34) we 
have a modification of, and an improvement on, the arrange- 




FlG, 33. — Vault of Apsidal Aisle, Pontoise. 

ment of the vaulting just noticed in Pontoise. The chapel and 
the adjoining bay of the aisle are in the same manner united 
under one vault by the omission of the dividing arch, and the 
extension of the rib c to the intersection of the diagonals. But 
the ill-proportioned length given to this rib in the vault of Pon- 
toise, and the unequal dimensions of the triangular cells which 
there result, are avoided here in St. Denis by an innovation that 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



33 



established the distinctively Gothic arrangement of diagonal ribs 
in apsidal aisle vaulting — that, namely, of disposing their oppo- 
site branches (which as in Pontoise are straight in plan) so that 
they meet at an angle. The point of intersection may be thus 
placed wherever the architect chooses. It is here near the centre 
of the vault, and the cells are by this means rendered nearly 




Fig. 34. — Vaults of Apsidal Aisles of St. Detiis. 

equal in area. This vaulting has a full system of ribs, all of 
which, except the diagonals, are pointed. Here also, apparently 
for the first time, the window openings of the chapels have 
pointed arches concentric with the structural arches of the 
vaulting. It is noticeable, too, that these openings are much 
enlarged, their archivolts forming sub-arches to the vault ribs. 

Although the difficulties that had embarrassed the earlier 
builders, and had led to the awkward forms of the apsidal 



84 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

vaulting of Morienval, were now largely conquered, yet irregu- 
larities of form could not be wholly avoided. Irregularities are, 
in fact, inherent in the Gothic system, which in this respect 
resembles nature itself, where a vital principle seems to operate 
to prevent perfect uniformity in the development of organic 
forms. And in Gothic architecture, as in nature, these irregu- 
larities often give to the forms produced an added charm. 
They result, in part, from lack of mechanical precision in lay- 
ing out plans and carrying up the edifice, but more largely from 
structural necessities. It will be seen, for instance, that the 
trapezoidal plan of this bay of the apsidal aisle of St. Denis is 
considerably askew, and that the vault rib/, whose elevation is 
/', having to interpenetrate with the other ribs which spring 
from the impost g, in order that they may all be gathered upon 
the capital of the single column of the system which divides the 
aisles, gives to the arch of the vault surface the same one-sided 
form that we have noticed in the vault of Morienval. This, of 
course, results of necessity in all cases where a vaulting arch 
interpenetrates at the impost on one side and not on the other — 
which it often does even in advanced Gothic buildings, as in the 
apsidal aisles of Chartres. If it were desired to avoid this 
interpenetration, a group of columns would be needed instead 
of a single one, so that each rib of the compound impost might 
rest on a capital of its own. But such a group of columns 
would take up too much space, and produce a heavy effect in 
the aisle. In cases where both sides of the arch interpenetrate, 
the arch of the vault surface becomes, of course, symmetrical, 
but it is not concentric with the intrados of the rib — as may be 
seen in the elevation h' of the arch h (Fig. 34). 

From this analysis it will be seen that in St. Denis the 
apsidal aisle vault was almost completely developed. The 
difficulties of vaulting such aisles by the older methods of 
construction had been considerable, and the work when accom- 
plished was inelegant. The sinuous unsupported groins of the 
primitive apsidal compartments were inherently weak, and the 
excessive stilting and other awkward expedients necessarily 
resorted to were unsightly. But by the use of the rib system 
and the pointed arch the architects were now enabled to vault 
these concentric aisles with facility, security, and elegance. 

The apsidal aisles of the Church of St. Louis of Poissy and 



nr GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 85 

the Cathedral of Sens, though backward in development as 
compared with St. Germer and St. Denis, exhibit respectively 
some experimental adjustments that require notice. I have 
already, in the preceding chapter (p. 54), spoken of St. Louis 
of Poissy as a Romanesque rather than a transitional monu- 
ment. The eminent French writer, M. Felix de Verneilh, 1 
has, however, supposed it to be the immediate precursor of St. 
Denis, and more recently the same view has been taken by M. 
Anthyme Saint-Paul. 2 But in the light of the constructions 
already considered a theory which derives the apsidal vaulting 
of St. Denis directly from that of Poissy is hardly tenable ; and 
the emphatic statement of Viollet-le-Duc 3 that the principles of 
the vaulting of St. Denis are not approached by those of Poissy 
is not too strong. For in the vaulting of Poissy the principle of 
interpenetrating regular geometric surfaces is largely retained. 
The crowns of the vaults are straight in section, and the groins 
are without ribs. 4 The aisle vaulting of Poissy is thought to be 
nearly contemporaneous with the vaulting of St. Germer and 
also with that of Pontoise ; its primitive character is therefore 
remarkable, especially when its locality so near to Paris is con- 
sidered. The longitudinal rib, however, is here present, and the 
manner of its adjustment to the other arches of the vault is un- 
like anything that we have before met with, and is worthy of 
notice. The vaulting arches of Poissy are all semicircular or 
segmental, and this longitudinal rib, spanning the longest side 
of the vault, has necessarily a higher crown than those of the 
other sides. To prevent, therefore, the crown of this rib from 
reaching much higher than that of the opposite arch on the 
narrow side of the trapezoid, its springing is placed at a lower 
level than that of the other arches. 5 Many of the minor features 
of Poissy, as the capitals and bases of the apsidal piers, closely 

1 Les Premiers des Monuments Gothiques. Paris, 1864. 

2 Viollet-le-Duc et son Systeme Archeologique, Tours, 1881, p. 130. 

3 Dictionnaire, s.v. Voute, p. 503. 

4 St. Louis of Poissy has suffered so greatly from restoration and alteration that 
it is now hardly possible to gather from the building itself any clear understanding of 
the original east end. If, however, the drawings by Viollet-le-Duc, made before the 
restorations, and now in the Trocadero, may be trusted, the statements in the text 
above are correct. 

5 In St. Denis the groin rib is sprung from a level below that of the transverse 
rib for the same reason. 



86 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



resemble those of St. Denis ; but in the structural principles of 
its vaulting the two monuments have little in common. 

The apsidal aisles of the Cathedral of Sens, which are nearly 
contemporaneous with those of St. Denis, 1 while having con- 
siderable likeness to Poissy, exhibit a much more advanced con- 
struction. The vaults have here the domical form, are provided 
with groin ribs, and have the pointed arch on the narrow side 
of each compartment. In the groin ribs the same adjustment 
occurs that we have noticed in St. Denis — the opposite branches 
of each rib meeting in plan at an angle, and bringing the inter- 




FiU. 35. — Vauit ot Apsidal Aisle of Sens. 

section near the middle of the compartment (Fig. 35). If Sens 
be, as some writers suppose, 2 anterior to St. Denis, then this 
innovation may be due to its architect. In the adjustment of 
the arch on the long side of the vault, the architect has followed 
the designer of Poissy. The shaft group, also, is composed like 
that of Poissy, and thus has no member for the support of the 
diagonal rib. The diagonal rib here inserted rests, therefore, 
on a corbel placed just above the impost of the transverse rib 
(Fig. 36) as in the choir of St. Germer (Fig. 30). Another 
characteristic of this vaulting is the manner in which the inner 
branches of the transverse ribs are provided for by separate 



1 Cf. Anthyme Saint-Paul, Op. cit., p. 

2 Ibid., p. 139. 



I3»- 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



87 



supports in the great piers. The easternmost two of these piers 
consist of coupled round columns ranged in line with the direc- 
tion of the transverse rib — as at b, Fig. 35 ; while the other two 
are composed as at c in the same figure. Ample space is thus 
afforded for the impost of each arch, and no interpenetrations, 
or distortions of the vault surfaces, occur. 

It is impossible to be precise in chronological sequence, 
but the cathedrals of Noyon and 
Senlis must, it would seem, have 
followed very soon after Suger's 
work at St. Denis. They are, be- 
yond doubt, nearly contemporaneous 
buildings, 1 and illustrate the progress 
that had been made by the middle 
of the twelfth century. Both of 
these churches were designed on a 
considerable scale. They have ap- 
sidal aisles, radial chapels, and 
vaulted triforium galleries. In their 
proportions and structural features 
they show a free exercise of the 
inventive talents of those secular 
builders who were already beginning 
to take a leading part in architec- 
tural works, finding scope for their 
genius in the communal cathedrals 
that were now rising in quick succes- 
sion in the newly chartered towns. 

Noyon had been one of the first 
cities to organize a commune, and it 
had done so under the fortunate cir- 
cumstance of its bishop having taken 
an initiative in the work, so that 

from the first there was harmony between the ecclesiastical 
and civil authorities, 2 which was not always the case else- 




FlG. 36. — Sens. 



1 M. Vitet has shown (Notre-Danu de Noyon, par L. Vitet, Paris, 1845) that 
the earliest portions of Noyon must have been begun as early as 1150, while Senlis 
is supposed by M. Lefevre-Pontalis (Bibliotheque de V ' Ecole des Charles, vol. xlvi. 
p. 492) to have been begun about 1156. 

2 A. Thierry, Lettres sur I " Hist, de France, p. 223 et set]. 



88 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

where. From this circumstance it has been supposed by M. 
Viollet-le-Duc 1 and by M. Vitet 2 that the communal influence 
in the design of this cathedral was less exclusive than it was 
now generally coming to be, and that some of its features 
(the peculiar use of the round arch in connection with the 
pointed arch, and the ample development of the apsidal 
chapels) may be concessions to the ecclesiastical traditions 
and preferences. In the light, however, of the earlier and 
contemporaneous monuments, which had not been thoroughly 
studied at the time when these authors wrote, there seems to be 
little ground for this view. The ecclesiastical builders had 
themselves made the first structural innovations, and it does not 
appear that they had any conservative preferences standing 
in the way of architectural progress, though this progress was 
undoubtedly hastened when the lay builders began to take a 
leading part in the production of monumental works. 

However this may be, the choir and apse of Noyon are 
indeed in some respects peculiar in design. In transitional 
buildings generally, the pointed arch is used throughout for 
the structural arches of the interior. At Noyon this is not 
the case. We have noticed in the triforium gallery of St. 
Germer another exception to the general use of the pointed 
arch in interiors, but at Noyon we find the round form retained 
in some of the most important structural arches. 

The system of this choir is uniform, and the original high 
vaulting has survived, though it has been somewhat repaired. 
As in St. Germer, the crowns of all of the vault ribs are made 
to reach to nearly the same level, though in the longitudinal rib 
(the one which, as being the narrowest in span, most requires 
the pointed form) the round arch is retained. To get the 
crown of this rib up to the high level which it reaches, it had, 
of course, to be very much stilted. This seems to afford an- 
other proof that the pointed arch was not introduced into the 
Gothic system because of an aesthetic preference ; for the 
builders here seem to have been not quite settled in their 
minds with regard to its use, choosing, in this case, rather 
than to employ it to stilt thus excessively the round arch. 



1 S.v. Cathedral, Dictionnaire, p. 303. 

2 Monographie de I 'Aglise de Notre-Dame de Noyon. 



in GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 89 

In the apse the pointed form alone is used, not only in the 
structural arches of the interior, but also in the external open- 
ings of the ground story, the triforium, and the clerestory. 
This apse is thus apparently the earliest extant structure 
of three stories in which the pointed arch is used consistently 
throughout. In the choir the vaulting of the triforium gallery 
is also on pointed arches, and hence the triforium openings are 
pointed ; but in the lower aisle vaulting the round arch is 
retained in all except the transverse ribs, so that the ground- 
story archivolts of the choir are necessarily round. They are 
of a single order of square section, with plainly bevelled edges, 
and have a singularly primitive effect in a design that is in 
many respects far advanced in Gothic character. We have 
thus in the choir of Noyon an arrangement which is just the 
reverse of that above noticed in St. Germer, where a round- 
arched triforium is placed between a ground story and clere- 
story, both of which have pointed vaulting. It seems not 
unlikely that this may have arisen as another mode of meeting 
the difficulty that appears to have embarrassed the builders 
of St. Germer. Choosing to have the higher Gothic triforium, 
the architect of Noyon may have been led to employ the low 
round-arched ground story, fearing that otherwise he might 
carry the whole structure dangerously high. It is further 
noticeable that the upper triforium of Noyon is so much 
lower than that of St. Germer that there can hardly have 
been room for concealed flying buttresses, and it is not im- 
probable that these important members of the Gothic system 
were here for the first time used externally. 1 

The principal innovation that occurs in the choir and apse 
of Noyon (unless it be true that the external flying buttress 
was here first developed) is the substitution of single round 
columns for compound piers on the ground story. Such col- 
umns had before been used in alternation with compound piers, 
as in the nave of Jumieges, and in the curve of the apse as at 
Vignory, Notre-Dame de la Couture of Le Mans, Poissy, and 
elsewhere ; but they had not, I believe, before been employed 

1 I have not very thoroughly examined this part of the apse of Noyon on the 
spot. It is quite possible that the form of the primitive buttressing could still be 
made out by an examination of the piers beneath the aisle roof. The existing ex- 
ternal buttresses of the clerestory are interpolations of the Renaissance period. 



go GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

for the entire ground-story system of a vaulted edifice. They 
are here very slender in proportion to the bulk and weight of 
the loads they carry, and are in this respect without precedent 
in Western Europe, though columns of equal slenderness 
(already noticed, p. 33) were used long before in the Church 
of St. Sophia of Constantinople. 1 In such piers the vaulting 
shafts rise from the spreading capitals (Fig. 148, p. 310) of these 
columns, and there are consequently no vaulting shafts rising 
continuously from the pavement upward. But much space is 
gained by the use of such columns, together with a general 
effect of lightness and elegance. This system was afterwards 
adopted for both choir and nave in the larger cathedrals of 
Paris and Laon, but it was soon after improved upon, — the 
builders, as we shall see, finding a mode to secure the starting 
of the vault supports from the pavement without returning to the 
massive compound piers of the earlier vaulted structures. 

We now come to an important monument in which a some- 
what different type of construction occurs — the Cathedral of 
Senlis. Senlis, like St. Germer, was originally constructed 
throughout on one uniform design, but, unlike St. Germer and 
most other large churches, it had originally no transept. 2 

Of the choir the primitive construction survives, with a few 
minor exceptions, up to the level of the clerestory string ; but 
the existing clerestory is an incongruous and ill-proportioned work 

1 The original ground-story columns of the choir of Noyon remain in the curve 
of the apse only. Those of the straight part of the choir, which are of larger dimen- 
sions, with a small engaged shaft on each, are alterations of a later epoch. In the 
westernmost pier on the south side, the abacus of the original smaller column may 
be still seen above that of the later one. 

2 The evidence that Senlis had originally no transept is plain in the monument 
itself. The space (12.50 m.) between the main pier of the nave at the crossing 
of the existing transept, and the main pier on the east side of the first bay of the 
choir, is almost exactly equal to that of two double bays. Moreover, this main pier 
of the nave has a capital on the transept side of the same size and type, and on the 
same level, as the one on the opposite side which carries the ground-story archivolt. 
This capital, which now has no function, must have carried its part of the continuous 
arcade of the primitive nave. The alteration was made, apparently, about the middle 
of the thirteenth century by destroying one double bay and altering another into a 
rather wide single bay. The date of this change is manifest by the character of 
the newly inserted crossing pier on the east side of the transept. This has the slen- 
der shafts and capitals of the type that characterizes the work of the middle of the 
thirteenth century. But this transept is disfigured in many parts by later flamboyant 
alterations. 



in GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 91 

of a much later period. The pier system is alternate, and the 
forms of the piers show that the primitive vaulting must have 
been constructed on the sexpartite plan which had been evolved 
in the Abbaye-aux-Hommes at Caen. But the architectural 
progress of the time must have been shown in the improved 
form and execution of the vaults, which were probably the 
earliest sexpartite vaults ever constructed on Gothic principles. 
Hardly any vaults of this form are extant in the Ile-de-France 
of a date earlier than those of the choir of the Cathedral of Paris 
— which were completed about 1177. 1 The sexpartite vaulting 



Fig. 37. — Senlis. 

of Caen seems to have been, as we have seen (p. 48), developed 
largely by chance in altering the building at a period consider- 
ably later than that of its original construction. The vault sup- 
ports there, having been derived from the Lombard models, 
were not intended for such vaults as they now carry. But here 
in Senlis nothing was fortuitous or unforeseen. The vaults and 
their supports were simultaneously conceived, and were in all 
respects parts of an organic whole. This is shown by the piers 
still extant, though not a stone of the primitive vaulting remains 
in place. The section of the main pier is shown in Fig. 37. The 

1 Cf. V. Mortet, £tude Historique et Archeologique siir la Cathedrale ft le Palais 

episcopal de Paris, Paris, 18S8, p. 43. 



9 2 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



round column a supported the main transverse rib of the high 
vault, b and c were the supports of the archivolts of the ground 
story, and d supported the transverse rib of the aisle vault, 
while / and g carried the diagonal ribs of the high vault, 
i and j the diagonal ribs of the aisle vault, and e and h the 
longitudinal ribs of the high vault. The only capitals in this 
pier on the ground-story level are those of the archivolt columns 
and the vaulting shafts of the aisles. The five other members 
which compose the great vaulting group rise without interrup- 
tion to the point from which the high vault sprung. The whole 
pier is built up of coursed masonry admirably cut and closely 
jointed. The intermediate pier is, on the ground story, a single 
round column from whose capital (upon which are also gathered 
the two archivolts, and the transverse and diagonal ribs of the 
aisle vault) rise three slender vaulting shafts to support the 
intermediate transverse rib and the two longitudinal ribs. 

The vaulting of Caen (Fig. 15, p. 49), though constituting a 
new and fecund type, is not Gothic vaulting. In Gothic vaulting 
every arch has a supporting rib, and the rib system constitutes 
an independent framework which determines the form of the 
vault. But in Caen the rib system is incomplete, it but partially 
and imperfectly performs the function of an independent skele- 
ton, and it but slightly determines the form of the vault. The 
mind of the builder had not freed itself from the idea of the 
Roman groined vault. He felt the advantage of the rib system 
in an imperfect way, however, and this, together with the sex- 
partite innovation which the intermediate shaft had suggested, 
compelled a wide departure from the Roman form. The result 
is curious. The larger triangles of the vaults have nearly cylin- 
drical surfaces, but the groin arches being, as we have seen 
(p. 48), imperfect segments of circles rather than semi-ellipses, 
some distortion of the cylindrical form is occasioned. The most 
radical departure from the ancient principles of vaulting occurs 
in the lateral cells. These do, indeed, mark a far-reaching, 
though an awkward, step in the direction of Gothic vaulting. 
The surfaces of the triangular spaces enclosed by the inter- 
mediate transverse ribs, the diagonal ribs, and the clerestory 
wall necessarily assume irregular forms in accommodating 
themselves to the positions, and the varying curves, of these 
arches, and owing to the shapes and the adjustments of the 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



93 



arches the forms are needlessly inelegant. In Senlis, on the 
other hand, the logical design and skilful execution of the piers 
just described, together with the admirable execution and design 
of aisle vaulting, make it appear certain that here there were no 




Fig. 38. — Senlis. 



such defects. The architect of this monument had a perfect 
understanding of his vaulting scheme in all its parts, and of the 
means by which it should be carried out. His ground plan was 
laid out, and the forms of his piers were determined with rigor- 



94 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap, hi 

ous provision for its requirements. The principle fortuitously 
evolved and rudely embodied in the Abbaye-aux-Hommes was 
undoubtedly worked out in Senlis with mechanical precision and 
artistic skill. 

Figures 38 and 39, an elevation and section, and Fig. 40, 
a perspective view, will afford a clearer idea than words can do 
of what remains of this choir. 1 It will be seen that the archi- 
volts are pointed in both ground story and triforium. Those 
of the triforium are of two orders which are not concentric, an 
adjustment of doubled orders which is rare in France, though 
it occurs in a few other transitional buildings, as in the neigh- 
bouring Church of St. Evremond of Creil and also in St. Denis. 
The perspective view will afford some idea of the quiet beauty 
of this interesting monument, as well as of the degree of Gothic 
expression that was reached in it. In the apse of Noyon we 
apparently have the earliest extant monument of three stories in 
which the pointed arch is used throughout. In Senlis we have, 
perhaps, the earliest instance in which this arch was used 
throughout the interior alike for apse and choir. 

The same constructive logic is carried out in the other por- 
tions of this interior. The vaults of the aisles, of the apsidal 
chapels, and of the triforium gallery show no defects of princi- 
ple or of workmanship ; and they remain in perfect condition. 
It will be noticed (plan, Fig. 41) that the great rib c dividing the 
vault of the apsidal chapel from the adjoining compartment of 
the aisle, which was omitted in Pontoise and St. Denis, is here 
restored ; and that the vault of the chapel, thus rendered inde- 
pendent of that of the aisle, has groin ribs like those of a rec- 
tangular vault, and that the groins of the aisle compartment are 
arranged, like those of St. Denis, so as to follow straight lines 
in the plan and intersect in the middle of the vault. At Noyon, 
where the chapels are more developed, a similar arrangement 
of the ribs occurs, together with an additional rib in the direction 
of the axis, which makes the vault (Fig. 42) quinquepartite. 
This, with further amplifications, became the general form of 
apsidal chapel vaulting — the number of cells being increased 
to six in the cathedrals of Chartres, Amiens, Reims, and other 
large churches. The window openings of the chapels of Senlis 

1 The wall is left incomplete in the section (Fig. 39), because later alterations 
have obliterated all traces of the original design in the parts omitted. 




Fig. 39. — Senlis. 



96 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



are large, and a few of them are slightly pointed, but the most 
are round-arched. 

It may here be remarked that we have reached the time of 




FIG. 40. — Senlis. 

greatest perfection in masonry, and nowhere do we rind skill in 
the manipulation of carefully selected material more admirably 
exhibited than in the Cathedral of Senlis. After n 30, for a 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



97 



period of perhaps sixty years, the vaults, piers, arid walls of the 
Gothic buildings are unrivalled for fineness of facing and pre- 
cision of jointing. They are in this respect in striking contrast 




Fig. 41. — Senlis. 

to those of the larger constructions of the thirteenth century, 
which are often rough-jointed and rudely faced. 

We have already noticed that the churches of St. Germer 
and Noyon exhibit a nearer approach to Gothic character and 
expression within than without, and the same is true of Senlis. 



98 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

The interior is frankly Gothic in its structural features, while 
what remains of the original exterior is almost as completely- 
Romanesque as that of St. Germer. External features, in the 
Gothic system, are a consequence of internal structure, and 
in the process of development they are the last things to 
change. The change begins at the very heart of the fabric 




Fig. 42. — Noyon. 

and gradually works outward till every part is reached. The 
new principle is first seen operating imperfectly in the diminu- 
tive vaults of Morienval ; it works with more sureness in the 
vaulting of Bury, Berzy-le-Sec, and other small buildings ; then 
in the high vaults of St. Germer, Noyon, and Senlis, it makes 
further advances and creates for itself an appropriate system 
of supports; and thus it moves on, as we shall see, in this 
creative fashion until the full development is accomplished. 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



99 



What was the precise mode of buttressing the high vaults 
of Senlis we have now no means of knowing. The existing 
flying buttresses belong to the flamboyant reconstruction of the 
clerestory. It is possible that flying buttresses may have sprung 
over the aisle roofs, but it seems more probable that if any such 
abutments were employed they were concealed beneath these 
roofs ; for the springing of the vaults was at a comparatively low 
level, as is shown (Figs. 39 and 40) by the capitals which remain 
in place. 1 Moreover, the piers are as yet almost heavy enough 
to have resisted the vault pressures without other reenforcement 
than that which is afforded by the triforium vaulting. 

The choir of the Abbey Church of St.-Germain-des-Pres of 
Paris (Fig. 43), which was consecrated in 1163, and is therefore 
nearly contemporaneous with Noyon and Senlis, is another mon- 
ument of the highest interest in connection with the early Gothic 
development. This choir remains intact, with exception of a 
deplorable alteration in the clerestory and triforium, both within 
and without. The system is uniform, the vaults are excessively 
domical, and the piers are like those of the choir of Noyon in 
having single round columns on the ground story with the 
vaulting shafts rising from their capitals. There are three 
vaulting shafts on each pier, which carry the transverse and 
diagonal ribs, while the longitudinal ribs rest on corbels (a, Fig. 
43) placed above the impost of the clerestory opening. The 
early builders made many trials before they reached a satisfac- 
tory arrangement of supports for the ribs of the vaulting. The 
earliest vaults, often having no longitudinal ribs, required but 
three vaulting shafts — as in the nave of Bury (Fig. 23, p. 67). 
The designer of the piers of the choir of St. Germer followed 
the same model, but instead of springing the diagonal ribs from 
the lateral shafts he sprung them, as we have seen (Fig. 30, 
p. 76), from a corbel, because he wished to use these shafts for 
the support of the longitudinal ribs which were here inserted. 
After this in general, during the second half of the twelfth 
century, the shaft group is either made to consist of five 
members, one for each rib of the vault, as in the main piers of 
Senlis ; or else the longitudinal rib is carried by a short shaft 
resting on the clerestory string, as, indeed, it is in St. Germer, 

1 The original capitals remain in place in the easternmost piers only. 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



though this short shaft is imperfectly supported by the lateral 
shaft of the main vaulting group. The springing of the longi- 
tudinal rib from a corbel without any shaft at all, as here in 
St.-Germain-des-Pres, is rare. 



Fig. 43. — St. Germain-des-Pres. 

A curious and unusually puzzling mixture of round and 
pointed arches occurs in the structural parts of this choir. The 
longitudinal ribs of the high vault, the ground-story archivolts, 
and the transverse ribs of the aisle vaulting are round, while the 



in GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 101 

transverse ribs of the high vaults, the transverse ribs of the aisle 
chapels, and the window openings of the clerestory are pointed. 
Thus to retain the round form in a structural arch where the 
pointed form would have done better, while the pointed form is 
employed without any structural reason, seems a curious con- 
tradiction of the logical spirit that is generally so marked in the 
works of the early Gothic builders. But notwithstanding this 
the choir of St.-Germain-des-Pres is far advanced in Gothic form 
not only in its internal system, but also in its exterior ; for here 
we have not only the pointed arch in the clerestory openings, 
but (as shown in Fig. 43), the true flying buttress springing 
over the aisle roof. 

The parts of the buildings thus far noticed have been, for 
the most part, choirs and east ends. The naves were generally 
constructed later; though in most cases they were built soon 
after the choirs were completed. While many minor puzzles are 
presented by the respective features of these early buildings 
which, in the absence of written records, often prevent an exact 
determination of their chronological relationships, yet there can 
be little doubt that such constructions as St. Evremond of Creil, 
the nave of St.-Germer-de-Fly, the vaulting of the nave of St. 
Etienne of Beauvais, and the naves of Noyon and Senlis fol- 
lowed closely after the works already mentioned. St. Evremond, 
St. Germer, and St. Etienne have regular systems with oblong 
quadripartite vaults, while the naves of Noyon and Senlis have 
alternate systems, and had originally sexpartite vaulting. In 
St. Evremond the ponderous character of Romanesque work 
survives, though the interior has all the essential members and 
dispositions of a Gothic design. The crowns of the vaulting 
arches are all at nearly the same level, and each rib has its own 
supporting shaft in the pier 1 as in the main piers of Senlis. 
Like most other transitional monuments, St. Evremond has no 
Gothic character externally, but under the aisle roof are con- 
cealed flying buttresses like those of the choir of St. Germer. 2 

1 Except in the easternmost bay (which appears somewhat earlier than the rest 
of the work), where the diagonal rib interpenetrates the transverse rib so that both 
together rest on the central shaft, while the lateral shafts, of which there are but two, 
carry the longitudinal ribs. 

2 St. Evremond is a precious monument of transitional Gothic, though it has 
suffered greatly from neglect and violence. It has not, however, been injured by 



102 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

The earliest extant Gothic nave on a large scale is, perhaps, 
that of St. Germer. Its character seems to indicate that it followed 
immediately after the completion of the choir and transept. Its 
date cannot, therefore, be far from the middle of the twelfth 
century. 1 Its oblong vaults are substantially like the vault of 
the choir already described (p. 74), but the piers are more devel- 
oped, having, as in St. Evremond, a shaft from the pavement 
for each rib. Such a pier is merely an amplification of the type 
(Fig. 45, p. 105) employed in St. Etienne of Beauvais, having an 
added member on each side to carry the longitudinal rib — ■ 
which in the primitive vaulting of St. Etienne was doubtless 
absent, as it is in the still extant vaulting of the aisles of the same 
building. The piers of St. Germer are majestic in appearance 
as well as logical in composition, but they are very massive, and 
a more compact form had to be devised before the Gothic system 
could reach its fullest distinctive character. 

It has been suggested 2 that St. Etienne of Beauvais was 
probably the prototype of St. Germer, and a comparison of the 
two naves seems to confirm this view. But, as we shall pres- 
ently see, some of the features of St. Germer probably did not 
exist in the original design of St. Etienne. They seem to have 
been inserted at a period considerably later than that of the 
primitive construction. So that if, in the first instance, St. 
Germer was derived from St. Etienne, St. Etienne may have 
been afterwards remodelled in imitation of St. Germer. The 
internal system of the nave of St. Germer is, for the most part, 
perfectly Gothic in principle ; but, as in the choir, no Gothic 
character whatever appears in the exterior. Even the concealed 
flying buttresses are wanting here. The builders appear to 
have felt that the structure was massive enough to be secure 

alteration, or so-called restoration. It is, in fact, a ruin, and has been for some time 
used as a manufactory of porcelain ware. The gases from the chemicals used in the 
processes of this manufacture have disintegrated the masonry of the interior, so that 
many of the details on the ground story are effaced. Many other buildings in this 
region, of great importance in the history of the early Gothic development, have suf- 
fered in like manner from neglect and abuse. The charming little Church of Noel St. 
Martin has long been abandoned and is falling into a state of ruin, and the beautiful 
Church of St. Frambourg of Senlis has been as much injured as St. Evremond, and has 
long been used as a storage house. 

1 Cf. Eng. Lefevre-Pontalis, " Etude sur la Date de l'Eglise de Saint-Germer," 
Bibliotheque de P&cole des Charles, vol. xlvi. 

2 Cf. M. Lefevre-Pontalis, Ibid., p. 493. 






in GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION- IN FRANCE 103 

without them, and although only the two easternmost compart- 
ments of the vaulting have survived, it does not appear that the 
destruction of the others, which occurred in the year 1400, 1 was 
occasioned by any material yielding of the piers. 

St. Germer seems originally to have possessed one feature 
that is rare in France, namely, a western transept. Its former 
existence is plainly indicated by the great crossing piers, two of 
which still stand and are exposed to view in the curious piece 
of patchwork that makes up the existing west facade. These, 
like the crossing piers of the eastern transept, have clustered 
shafts that rise from the pavement and still carry portions of 
the great crossing arches in three orders, and of the diagonal 
ribs which were ornamented in a manner similar to those of the 
apse. In the lateral bays of this patched-up front the archivolts 
of the aisles and of the triforium gallery still appear where they 
formerly opened into this western transept. Such transepts were 
not uncommon in the Rhenish Romanesque churches, but they 
were uncommon in France. 2 

St. Germer seems to have had considerable influence on the 
subsequent architecture of its vicinity. This influence is shown 
in the neighbouring Church of St. Hildevert of Gournay — one 
of the most beautiful of transitional buildings. St. Hildevert 
was originally a Romanesque structure with a choir designed 
like the nave of St.-Germain-des-Pres of Paris, 3 but it was 
remodelled in the early Gothic time. The remodelling must 
have taken place soon after the completion, if not . during 
the progress, of the nave of St. Germer, which, in many 
parts of the work, it closely resembles. The scale of St. 
Hildevert is smaller, it has no triforium gallery, but many 
of the structural forms, the types of capitals, and the profil- 
ing of the mouldings, are almost identical ; and the piers are 
composed in the manner of those of the choir of St. Germer, 

1 Ibid. 

2 Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Transept, vol. ix. p. 236, remarks that western transepts are 
found only in the eastern provinces of France, as in the cathedrals of Verdun and 
Besancon. 

3 The south aisle retains two bays of the original Romanesque structure. They 
are vaulted with groin vaults on the Roman principle, and have square piers with 
engaged shafts like those of the nave of St.-Germain-des-Pres. A group of shafts to 
carry the Gothic vaulting has replaced the original single shaft on the choir side; but 
these two bays retain their primitive round archivolts. 



104 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



having but three shafts from the pavement, with the shafts of 
the longitudinal ribs brought down to the triforium ledge 
(Fig. 44). The lateral vaulting capitals are set diagonally, and 
the diagonal ribs, as well as the transverse and longitudinal ribs, 
are pointed. The thrusts of the 
vaulting are met by heavy walls 
and piers (which seem to be those 
of the original Romanesque works) 
without reenforcement by flying but- 
tresses. Although it has the appear- 
ance of a remodelled interior, this 
choir of Gournay is a beautiful work 
of art ; and the Gothic portions of it 
are wrought with the mechanical pre- 
cision that is rarely wanting in the 
French monuments of the early 
period. 

The vaulting of the nave of St. 
Etienne of Beauvais (Fig. 45) appears 
to have been reconstructed in the 
Gothic form some time after the 
middle of the twelfth century. Here, 
as at Gournay, the diagonal ribs are 
pointed, and the vaults are well ad- 
justed to the Romanesque substruc- 
ture — which, as before remarked 
(p. 52), is far advanced in organic 
design. Since, apparently, no longi- 
tudinal rib was used in the primitive 
vaulting, and consequently no shaft 
for such a rib was incorporated in 
the group of the vaulting shafts, the 
longitudinal rib of this Gothic vault- 
ing is placed on a small shaft in the 
clerestory, which is supported by a 
part of the capital that carries the 
diagonal rib. This mode of supporting the longitudinal rib 
was much employed during the second half of the twelfth 
century, as, for example, in the Cathedral of Paris. At the 
time of the reconstruction of the vaulting other changes appear 




Fig. 44. — Gournay. 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



105 



to have been made. Among these was the introduction of the 
triforium arcade substantially reproducing that of St. Germer. 




FlG. 45. — St. Etienne, Beauvais. 

That this triforium was an interpolation there can hardly be 
a doubt; for the easternmost bay of the nave, which is more 



106 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

archaic in character than the rest of the work and seems plainly 
to retain its primitive design, has no triforium. The preserva- 
tion of this bay in an unaltered state is due, it may be reason- 
ably assumed, to its position adjoining the transept, where it 
would naturally be thought unsafe to break the wall with a 
large opening. The other bays of the primitive nave were 
unquestionably all like this one in having no triforium openings. 1 
A further confirmation of the belief that this triforium arcade 
was inserted at a period subsequent to that of the original work 
is afforded by the manner in which it is fitted into the space it 
occupies. The space beneath the original clerestory string 
(still undisturbed in the easternmost bay) was too low to allow 
the use of an arch of full semicircular form. A low segmental 
arch is therefore employed. But even with this form enough 
room for the opening could not be obtained without arching the 
clerestory string over its crown (Fig. 45). It will be noticed, 
moreover, that the profiling of the clerestory string over the 
arches is different from that of the string in the older bay ; 
and that this older bay has no triforium string while the other 
bays have such a string profiled like that of the clerestory. 
Still further, the facing and jointing of the masonry correspond 
with the work in the vaulting and not with the older work, 
while the style of the capitals and bases conforms with that 
of the vaulting capitals, which were plainly inserted when the 
vaulting was remodelled — as a comparison of them with the 
single older one in the primitive bay will show. It thus would 
seem that while St. Germer was an amplification of the original 
design of St. Etienne, St. Etienne was in turn remodelled after 
the improved scheme of St. Germer. By such remodellings of 
older work, as well as by entirely new constructions, were the 
Gothic forms in France gradually established. 

The nave of Noyon, built some time subsequent to the choir 
of the same church already noticed, exhibits a fuller apprehen- 
sion of the possibilities of the new system than any pre- 
ceding work that has come down to us intact. In the slender 
proportions of its piers, in the magnitude of its openings, and in 

1 Triforium openings are rare during the early part of the twelfth century except 
in large churches where the triforium is a vaulted gallery. Thus there are no tri- 
forium openings in Gournay, in Bury, or in Cambroune. They occur, however, in 
the nave of Poissy. 



in GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 107 

the style of its details it is hardly surpassed by any monument 
of the twelfth century. This nave, like that of Senlis, was 
originally covered with sexpartite vaulting, for which its pier 
system was plainly designed. The most logical portion consists 
of the three easternmost bays. In these bays the main piers 
have each the five vaulting shafts that are necessary to support 
the transverse, the diagonal, and the longitudinal ribs. In the 
remaining bays the system is lightened by the omission, in the 
pier group, of the shaft of the longitudinal rib — this rib being 
carried, as at St. Etienne of Beauvais, on a short shaft in the 
clerestory resting on a portion of the capital that bears the di- 
agonal rib. The piers of the eastern bays exhibit a peculiarity 
that we have not hitherto met with ; namely, the third order of 
shafts in the vaulting group (whose function is to carry the 
longitudinal ribs) do not terminate at the main impost level. In 
Senlis (Fig. 40) this shaft reaches no higher than those which 
support the larger ribs of the vault. But the longitudinal ribs of 
Gothic vaults over a clerestory always (as we shall see farther 
on) spring from a higher level. This level was in Senlis, as in 
St. Etienne of Beauvais, the cathedral of Paris, and many other 
monuments of both earlier and later date, reached by the short 
shaft before mentioned, which is set on the capital of the lower 
vaulting shaft. Here at Noyon, however, the lower shaft does 
not end with a capital at the main impost, but is prolonged to 
the much higher point from which the longitudinal rib springs. 
Thus the modes of adjusting the vaulting shafts to the ribs of 
the vaulting were very various from the first, and we shall have 
occasion to consider them further in the next chapter. 

In Noyon we apparently have the first, in Gothic form, of 
those splendid vaulted triforium galleries which reach their 
grandest development in the Cathedral of Paris. The general 
form of the opening in this gallery is like that of St. Germer, 
with pointed arches substituted for round ones. It is propor- 
tionally a larger opening, its supports are more slender, and the 
effect of the whole is more elegant. The piercing of the tym- 
panum here takes the form of a trefoil without ornaments. 
Over this gallery is a second triforium passageway with a 
diminutive shafted arcade of round arches. 

In Noyon and Senlis we have the sexpartite Gothic system, 
in its early form; in the great cathedrals of Paris and Laon, 



108 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

which quickly followed, we shall find this system still more 
grandly carried out. 

It will be observed that the monuments thus far examined 
show that the oblong quadripartite ribbed vault was the earliest, 
and the most prevalent, form of Gothic vault. The belief that 
the sexpartite form was first developed, and that it was gradu- 
ally superseded by the quadripartite, does not appear correct. 1 
In one of the most beautiful structures of this early epoch, the 
choir of the Abbey Church of St. Leu d'Esserent, the two forms 
occur side by side and are contemporaneous. The whole of 
this part of St. Leu has survived in good condition. The 
triforium is a noticeable feature of this design. It is no longer 
a vaulted gallery, but an elegant arcaded passageway — one 
of the earliest examples of the true Gothic triforium of the 
type that is so richly, but hardly more beautifully, carried out 
in the nave of Amiens. In this monument, too, we have again 
an external system of flying buttresses. St. Leu is thus one of 
the earliest extant monuments in which the new structural 
elements are found complete, and the pointed arch is used 
throughout, in both interior and exterior. 

It will be observed that each of the buildings which we 
examine has characteristics peculiar to itself. These various 
peculiarities show a degree of individual independence in the 
builders that is no less striking than the common allegiance 
to the leading idea which was, day by day, gaining distinctness, 
and was rapidly transforming the art of building. We have 
in this chapter been concerned with the beginnings of Gothic. 
We may now, in the next chapter, consider the leading struc- 
tural forms of the larger monuments of the latter part of the 
twelfth century and the beginning of the century following — 
the vast cathedrals of Paris, Laon, Chartres, Amiens, Reims, 



1 Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Construction, p. 103, refers to sexpartite vaults as con- 
structed " suivant la methode des premiers constructures gothiques." In the same 
article, p. 34, he speaks of the porch of Vezelay, with its oblong vaults without groin 
ribs, as the first monument of transition, and supposes that the next step of progress 
consisted in reverting to the square compartment with the insertion of the inter- 
mediate transverse rib in addition to groin ribs producing the sexpartite vault, and 
remarks : " Ce sont la des voutes primitive dites en arcs a" ogive." But when this early 
part of the Dictionnaire was written the author was breaking ground. The numer- 
ous small buildings of the Ile-de-France which so clearly exhibit the early Gothic 
vault development had then been little studied. 



in GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 109 

and others, in which the highest developments were reached — 
both structural and artistic. At the same time we shall have 
to give some further attention to the earlier and smaller edifices 
— following the steps of progress in the leading parts from their 
rudimentary to their ultimate forms. 



CHAPTER IV 

GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

II. Later Structural Developments 

We have seen that in the primitive Gothic both the oblong 
quadripartite and the sexpartite forms of vaulting occur con- 
temporaneously, but that the quadripartite form is apparently 
the earlier. It is true, however, that in the older cathedrals the 
sexpartite vault is the more common ; and since our ideas of the 
Gothic style have hitherto been mainly derived from the cathe- 
drals, it is not strange that this form of vault should have been 
regarded as the more primitive. With the closer study of the 
smaller extant monuments, in which the real beginnings of the 
style may be traced, this misconception, as well as some others, 
respecting Gothic art will be dispelled. 

Of the greater cathedrals the one in which the Gothic princi- 
ples were first distinctly and systematically carried out is that 
of Paris. This wonderful monument, notwithstanding all that 
it has suffered from violence and so-called restoration, exists 
to-day in almost complete structural integrity. 1 Here is a vast 
nave so admirably roofed with stone that the work has lasted 
intact 2 for seven hundred years, and will probably, if not wan- 
tonly injured, last for centuries to come. These vaults are sex- 
partite, and being nearly contemporaneous with the original 
vaults of the nave of Noyon, they doubtless show, in the 
main, how these last appeared. The diagonal ribs are round- 
arched, while the transverse and longitudinal ribs are pointed. 

1 Notre Dame of Paris not only remains structurally in substantial perfection, 
but it also retains a large part of its original sculpture. Internally the carving of all 
the capitals, except a few of those on the ground story, is the genuine work of the 
twelfth century; while of the exterior the carvings of the tympanums (except a part 
of the central one), the archivolts, and large portions of the jambs of the great portals 
remain, for the most part, as originally executed. 

2 The vaults of the choir are perfectly sound ; those of the nave have required 
some slight repairs since their partial reconstruction early in the thirteenth century. 



chap, iv GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE in 

The intermediate transverse ribs are, however, pointed but 
slightly ; and to bring their crowns up to the level of the inter- 
section of the diagonals they are considerably stilted. The 
crowns of the main transverse ribs are a little lower than those 
of the diagonals, and those of the longitudinals are lower still. 
The vaults have, therefore, a distinctly domical form. These 
various adjustments, by greater or less pointing, stilting, and 
even by the retention of the round arch where it will serve best, 
exhibit the flexibility of the Gothic system in an interesting and 
instructive manner. In vaults of this form the lateral cells are, 
as I have already (p. 48) remarked, necessarily oblique to the 
axis of the nave, and their surfaces assume shapes that are dif- 
ficult to describe. Irregularity of surface is a constant and 
necessary characteristic of Gothic vaults — even of those of the 
quadripartite form. Such vaults never have the shape of simple 
intersecting pointed vaults. Their forms cannot be described 
in geometric terms ; they vary in shape according to the spans, 
the altitudes, the curves, and the springing levels of the arches 
that compose the rib system. Hence it is by the forms and 
relations of these arches chiefly that they must be described. 
In the vaults of Paris, as in all Gothic vaults, the shells con- 
sist of successive courses of masonry which are slightly arched 
from rib to rib over each triangular cell. The beds of these 
successive courses are not parallel, but are variously inclined 
according as the mason found necessary or convenient in devel- 
oping the concave and winding surfaces engendered by the 
forms and positions of the ribs to which they had to be accommo- 
dated. These courses of masonry have here in Paris, as they 
have in most Gothic vaults, a considerable inclination near the 
springing from the longitudinal rib upward toward the diagonal, 
and they become gradually more level as they approach the 
crown of vault where they are more nearly parallel. But per- 
fectly parallel they can hardly ever be, since each course forms 
a portion of a surface that is concaved in all directions. In the 
early and finest Gothic vaultings this masonry is composed of 
small stones perfectly faced and closely jointed ; and the vault- 
ing of Paris, especially that of the choir, is a model of careful 
and finished workmanship. 

The shafts which sustain this vaulting rise from the capitals 
of the great cylindrical columns of the ground story, and are 



112 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

remarkably slender, though well proportioned for their func- 
tion. In the external system the flying buttresses were, as first 
constructed, magnificently developed, and were double in a two- 
fold sense. 1 That is, the piers which divide the double aisles 
were formerly carried up through the roof so as to form but- 
tresses to the vaulted triforium gallery, and, rising above the 
roof of this gallery, they received the heads of the double flying 
buttresses over the outer aisle, and gave foothold to another 
pair of arches over the triforium gallery. The lower arch of 
the outer pair was above the aisle roof, while the lower arch 
of the inner pair was beneath the roof of the triforium. The 
principle of equilibrium maintained by opposing thrusts was 
here completely developed ; the inert principle no longer gov- 
erns the construction, though a survival of the former method 
of building is found in the walls of the aisles and clerestory, 
which are no longer necessary to the strength of the edifice. 
The maximum of space for circulation and for prospect was 
secured by largely reducing the bulk of the supporting mem- 
bers, and if the maximum of area in the external openings was 
not yet reached it was only because the idea of developing such 
openings to the utmost had not yet occurred to the minds of 
the builders. 

One marked peculiarity of the Cathedral of Paris is that its 
piers are not functionally adapted to the sexpartite form of 
vaulting employed. The adjustments of the piers to the vaults 
are here just the reverse of that which we find in the nave of 
Noyon, where the system of supports, fashioned on the alter- 
nate principle logically demanded by sexpartite vaulting, is now 
covered with vaults of oblong quadripartite form. It would 
seem that in Paris quadripartite vaults must have been intended 
when the plan was laid out, and that, for some now unknown 
reason, the sexpartite form was adopted after the structure had 
been carried up to the springing ; for up to this level the sys 
tern is uniform. The ground-story columns are all of equal 
magnitude, and each of them carries a group of three vaulting 
shafts. The incongruity thus presented, in the naves of Paris 

1 The existing flying buttresses of the Cathedral of Paris consist of vast arches 
which clear both aisles with a single span. These, however, are alterations dating 
from the early part of the thirteenth century. Cf. Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Cath'edrale, 
p. 28S. 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



Ii3 



and Noyon respectively, between the forms of the vaults and 
the forms and adjustments of their supports, constitutes a seri- 
ous defect in each of these otherwise noble structures, as they 
have come down to us, — a defect which so contradicts the logic 
of the Gothic system as to leave little doubt that it was in each 
case the result of a change from the original project. The 
change was apparently wrought in Noyon at a time but little 
subsequent to that of the original construction, and in Paris 
when the structure had reached the height of the springing of 
the vaults. 1 

But in the Cathedral of Paris, though the same general 
incongruity exists in both choir and nave, there is a marked 
difference in the forms and adjustments of their respective 
vaulting systems. In the choir (the whole of which, with 
exception of slight restorations on the ground story, and the 
enlargement, during the early part of the thirteenth century, of 
the clerestory openings, is the original work that was begun in 
the year 1163) 2 the vaulting shafts rise from the capitals of the 
cylindrical columns of the ground story and are varied in their 
magnitudes in conformity with the weight and bulk of their re- 
spective loads. They are built up in courses of small stones, 
are engaged with the pier, and the central one is incorporated 
with a pilaster in the manner that had been prevalent in earlier 
constructions. In the piers which carry the main vaulting ribs, 
a transverse rib and two diagonals, the vaulting capitals of these 
shafts are all on the same level. The central capital supporting 
the transverse rib is set square with the wall, while the lateral 
ones are set obliquely in the directions of the diagonal ribs which 
they carry. 3 These lateral capitals support, besides the diago- 

1 M. Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Construction, p. 164, remarks that the ill adjustment of 
the piers to the vaults in the Cathedral of Paris had long puzzled him, but that close 
investigation at length showed him that the necessities of the sexpartite system were 
really met by the monolithic shafts which are grouped around every alternate pier in 
the series which divides the aisles. The piers so reenforced are opposite those of the 
nave which carry the main ribs of the vaulting. This, however, is hardly a sufficient 
justification of the whole design as it exists; for this mode of reenforcement does not 
satisfy the eye, however adequately it may provide for strictly mechanical exigencies 
of the scheme. 

2 The date of the construction of the choir of the Cathedral of Paris is discussed 
by M. V. Mortet in his Etude Hislorique et Archeologique sur la Cathedrale de Paris, 
Paris, iSSS, p. 41 et seq. 

3 The adjustment of vaulting capitals (established by the Lombard Romanesque 

1 



ii4 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



nals, each a small shaft, which rises in the clerestory to carry 
the longitudinal rib whose springing is at a higher level — an 
adjustment of great significance, as we shall presently see. In 
the intermediate piers the arrangement at the springing is dif- 
ferent. In each of these the central shaft only has a capital 
at the level of the springing of the larger vault ribs. The side 
shafts rise above this to the higher point of springing of the 
longitudinal ribs, where they receive their capitals. Figure 46 




Fig. 46. — Vaulting Imposts, Choir of Paris. 

will illustrate these features. In this figure A is the plan of 
the group of abaci of the capitals of the main vaulting shafts, 
and the sections of the three ribs which they support ; B is the 
plan of the abacus of the intermediate capital with the section 
of the intermediate rib, and the sections of the side shafts. C 
is a perspective elevation of the main group, and D is a perspec- 
tive elevation of the intermediate group. It will thus be seen 



designers and followed by the Romanesque builders of France, as in St. Etienne of 
Beauvais) was the usual adjustment followed by the early Gothic architects so long 
as the vaulting ribs retained a square section. With a change in the form of the ribs 
the manner of placing the capitals was correspondingly changed — as we shall see 
farther on. 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



'5 



that here in the choir the main and the intermediate groups 
of vaulting shafts differ in accordance with their respective 
functions. 

But in the nave, which appears to have been completed, all 
except the extreme west end, by about 1196, 1 the imposts ex- 
hibit no such alternation of form in correspondence with the 
demands of the sexpartite system of vaulting. There are here 






O 




Fig. 47. — Vaulting Imposts, Nave of Paris. 



three capitals in each group at the main springing level (A and 
B, Fig. 47), an arrangement which would be suitable for a 
uniform system with quadripartite vaulting, but which is ill 
adapted to the six-celled vaults actually employed. For while 
in the main group (C, Fig. 47) the abaci are fully utilized, — ■ 
having to support the three principal ribs of the vault and 
the bases of the small shafts which carry the longitudinal 
ribs, — the lateral abaci of the intermediate group have the 
larger portions, c, in the plan D, of their surfaces unoccu- 
pied, since no diagonal ribs spring from this group. This 

1 Cf. Mortet, Ibid., p. 46. 



n6 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 






Fig. 48. 



is both illogical and unpleasing. The only rib which springs 
at this level from the impost B being the intermediate trans- 
verse rib, the central shaft which supports it is the only one 
that requires a capital here. The side shafts ought to rise 
unbroken, as they do in the intermediate group of the choir, 
to the higher point of springing of the longitudinal ribs. A 
still further defect of the nave system is found in the vault- 
ing shafts themselves, which are not graduated in size in con- 
formity with the unequal weight 
and bulk of their respective 
loads, but are all of the same 
magnitude. They are, however, 
remarkable for their slenderness, 
which is rendered possible by 
their being composed of only a 
few lengths (in most cases but five) of strong cliquart standing 
free, though close to the pier, as shown in the section Fig. 48, 

In the fine neighbouring Church of Mantes, a construction 
contemporaneous with Paris, which it much resembles, we have 
another instance of sexpartite vaulting. In this case the vaults 
and their supports are better related to each other ; though the 
system, for the most part, still fails to exhibit a perfectly logical 
embodiment of the sexpartite idea. For while the piers are 
alternately massive and slender, as at Noyon and Senlis, their 
vaulting shafts are not, as in the earlier monuments, alternately 
varied in number in conformity with the vault ribs. They are 
arranged in groups of three in each pier. Those of the main 
piers, however, start from the pavement, while the intermediate 
groups rest on the capitals of the ground-story piers, which are 
single round columns. The shafts of the main groups are larger 
than those of the intermediate groups, and each main group has 
the central shaft engaged with a pilaster. There are three capi- 
tals at the main impost in each pier, and the longitudinal ribs are 
supported, as in the nave of Paris, by small shafts resting on 
the lateral capitals. The western main pier of the westernmost 
sexpartite compartment 1 is more logically designed. Here the 
support of the longitudinal rib starts from the triforium ledge, 



1 The bay at the extreme west end, between the towers, has here, as in most other 
cases, a vault of the oblong quadripartite form. 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



and rises continuously to the level of the springing of this rib 
(Fig. 49). The vaulting shafts of the intermediate piers of this 
compartment rise, like those of the main piers, from the pave- 
ment. In the vaulting of Mantes the intermediate transverse 
rib is round arched, so that in order to get its crown up to the 
intersection of the diagonals it has to be stilted to nearly the 
height of the springing of the longitudinal rib. 

Sexpartite vaults occur again in the Cathe- 
dral of Laon, a building also nearly contempo- 
raneous 1 with the nave of Paris. Here we meet 
with yet another arrangement of vault supports. 
The ground-story piers of Laon are, like those 
of Paris, single round columns whose capitals 
support the vaulting shafts. But instead of 
three shafts in each group, an arrangement that 
does not, as we have seen, conform logically to 
the sexpartite principle, we have here five shafts 
in the main groups and three in those of the 
intermediate piers. An independent support in 
the main system is thus provided for each rib in 
the vault (Fig. 50). In other words, the system 
of Laon is the same as that of the choir of 
Paris, except that the shafts which carry the 
longitudinal ribs rise, with the other shafts of 
the pier, from the ground-story columns, and, 
in both main and intermediate piers, pass up, 
without capitals at the main impost level, to the 
springing of these ribs. The system above 
the ground story is thus perfectly logical ; but 
the architectural composition as a whole is ren- 
dered somewhat unsatisfactory by the heaviness 
of the shaft groups in comparison with the pro- 
portions of the monocylindrical lower piers. It 
should be remarked, however, that in the two 
westernmost bays of the choir, which are 
the earliest and finest parts of the structure as 
the vaulting shafts are more compactly grouped 
heavy in effect. But in these bays the shafts 




Fig. 49. — Mantes. 

it now exists, 
and are less 
of the lonsri- 



1 Cf. Quicherat, 
et d' Ilistoire, Paris, 



" L'Age de la Cathedrale d« 
18S6, p. 147; and Viollet-1 



Laon, 
-Due, 



his Melanges a" 

Cathedrale. 



Archeologie 



n8 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



tudinal ribs have capitals at the main impost level, as well as at 
the higher point. 

The Cathedral of Bourges, constructed for the most part dur- 
ing the first quarter of the thirteenth century, 1 also has sexpar- 
tite vaulting with a peculiar system of supports. The piers are 
gigantic round columns reaching to the springing level. Em- 
bedded in the spandrels of the ground story and triforium 
arcades, they project beyond the surfaces of these last by some- 
thing less than a quarter of their bulk. They do not differ in 




Fig. 50. —Imposts of Vaulting, Laon. 



magnitude in obedience to the demands of the sexpartite form 
of vault, nor is there, on the ground story, any difference be- 
tween the main piers and the intermediate piers as regards the 
number and arrangement of the engaged shafts incorporated 
with them. Above the imposts of the great arcades, however, 
the main piers are furnished with additional shafts inserted to 
support the diagonal ribs. The shafts do not differ in size in 
accordance with their varying functions, nor are they gathered, 
in the usual manner, into compact groups ; they are separated 
by widely spaced intervals about the great cylindrical surfaces 

1 Cf. Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Cathedrale, p. 294; and s.v. Architecture, p. 235. 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



19 



of the columns. As at Laon, the main shafts only have capitals 
where the greater vault ribs spring, the supports of the longi- 
tudinal ribs rising unbroken to the higher level of the springing 
of these ribs. But in one respect a greater degree of Gothic 
consistency is reached in this monument than in the other large 
cathedrals thus far noticed; namely, in the continuity of the main 
supports from the pavement upwards in both main and inter- 
mediate piers. 

Another type of sexpartite construction, dating from the 
second half of the twelfth century, occurs in the Cathedral of 
Sens. In this case the main piers are composed in the older 
manner of those of Noyon and Senlis. They have five vault- 
ing shafts against pilasters rising from the pavement, each of 
which has a capital at the main impost level. The intermediate 
pier has a pair of round columns on the ground story, ranged 
in a line perpendicular to the nave, with a single vaulting shaft 
rising from the one on the nave side to carry the intermediate 
transverse rib. The small supports of the longitudinal ribs 
have no connection with the lower system, but rest indepen- 
dently on the clerestory ledge. 

Some exceptional forms occur in the sexpartite system of 
the easternmost bay of the choir of the small Church of Gonesse 
(Seine-et-Oise). Here the main piers are of square section with 
a shaft let into each angle, while a plain pilaster supports the 
main transverse rib, and round shafts on either side carry the 
diagonals. The intermediate pier consists, on the ground story, 
of a pair of round columns, of slender proportions, set, like 
those of Sens, in a line perpendicular to the axis of the nave. 

In Notre Dame of Dijon single round columns, like those of 
Paris, occur on the ground story, but they carry an alternate 
system of vaulting shafts appropriately adjusted to sexpartite 
vaults. These shafts are three in number in the main piers, 
with only one in the intermediate piers, while the supports of 
the longitudinal ribs rest on the clerestory ledge. The system 
of Dijon, above the ground story, is thus substantially like that 
of Sens. 

Of these various modes of adjustment of supports to vaults 
in sexpartite systems, the most logical and the most architec- 
turally effective are the earliest. In such buildings as the nave 
of Noyon and the choir of Senlis every member in the vaulting 



120 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

has its own support in the lower system from the pavement, 
except in the intermediate piers, where the supports rest on the 
capitals of the cylindrical ground-story columns. Of the monu- 
ments next in chronological order, like Paris, Laon, and Dijon, 
the comparative lack of structural continuity from the pavement 
upwards renders them less completely organic architectural 
compositions ; while such a nave as that of Bourges, though 
exhibiting a perfect continuity of supports, is less logical and 
elegant in the proportions and adjustments of its structural 
parts. 

In buildings of the latter part of the twelfth century, having 
uniform systems and quadripartite vaults, the forms and adjust- 
ments of the internal supports remain, in many cases, the same 
as in the earlier edifices of the same class, such as St.-Germer- 
de-Fly. That is, they have clustered vaulting shafts which rise 
from the pavement in every pier. But the piers in these later 
monuments are much diminished in bulk, and are improved in 
their forms and proportions, while a vigorous and effective sys- 
tem of flying buttresses completes the system, and renders the 
exterior expressive of the structure within. Of such buildings 
the little-known Cathedral of Meaux must, in its primitive scheme 
(Fig. 51), have been one of the most beautiful. Only small 
portions of this splendid monument remain unchanged to show 
what the whole design originally was. But of the nave the 
eastern bay on the south side, and the easternmost two on the 
north side, together with the two bays on the west side of 
the north arm of the transept, largely retain their original form. 
In these parts every arch and vault rib, from the ground story to 
the clerestory, has a supporting shaft of its own in the compact 
and elegant pier, — all of the vaulting shafts rising continuously 
from the pavement. Thus we have in Meaux, by the end of 
the twelfth century, the uniform type of Gothic structure, with 
oblong quadripartite vaulting (the type that was first developed 
in buildings like St.-Germer-de-Fly and St. Evremond of Creil) 
carried out with a remarkable degree of lightness and elegance, 
and in a manner that was hardly surpassed at any subsequent 
epoch. 

A very beautiful building, with quadripartite vaulting of this 
time, is the Abbey Church of St. Yved at Braisne, near Soissons. 
Here a combination of grouped supports, rising from the pave- 



iv GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 121 

merit, as at Meaux, and supports resting on the capitals of 
monocylindric columns, as at Paris, occurs. The eastern part 
of the choir, which has no aisles, is designed in the first manner, 




FIG. 51. — Section of System of Meaux. 



while the piers which divide the two western bays, where short 
aisles occur, and two piers of the transept, are of the latter form. 
The choir and transept, having only very short aisles near the 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



crossing, do not require flying buttresses ; but the nave, consist- 
ing of but two bays, has flying buttresses of early form, well 
adjusted to the thrusts of the vaulting. As in most monuments 

of the twelfth century, the 
clerestory and aisle openings 
are still comparatively small, 
and the enclosing walls yet 
retain much of the Romanesque 
solidity. But the Gothic skele- 
ton is perfectly developed 
throughout, and the whole 
design is of that pure, and 
even severe, type which the 
finest work of the twelfth cen- 
tury rarely fails to exhibit. 

In the beautiful nave of 
Lisieux we have a quadripartite 
system, in which round columns 
occur exclusively on the ground 
story. The main vaulting shafts 
rest, as usual in this type of 
pier, on the capitals of these 
columns, while the shafts of 
the longitudinal ribs are brought 
down only to the triforium 
ledge. The small, but exqui- 
site, choir of Gisors affords 
another example of the same 
general scheme carried out in a 
still purer style. This choir 
(Fig. 52) may, in fact, be taken 
as one of the finest existing 
monuments of the early Gothic 
style, in which the ground- 
story pier has not yet received 
its final organic development. 







Fig. 52. — Gisors. 



These various examples serve to show how great are the 
minor differences exhibited in the early Gothic buildings. No 
two of them have precisely the same arrangements of structural 
parts ; yet they all manifest a substantial unity of purpose, and 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



123 



a growing apprehension of the new principles. The differences 
are due to local circumstances and preferences, as well as to 
experimentation and versatility of invention. Each locality- 
developed artistic habits and predilections which were more 
or less peculiar to it ; and thus the central influence which 
went forth from the region about Paris was variously modified. 
By the mutual influences of these contiguous local schools, 
more or less mixed forms of art were produced in the Gothic, 
as is the case under similar circumstances in ail other types of 
architecture. The Cathedral of Sens, for instance, shows the 
united influences of Burgundy and the Ile-de-France. That 
of Bourges is a creation of the school of Poitou modified by 
the central school, while Rouen exhibits the Gothic principles 
as worked out under the influence of Norman taste. Yet while 
local peculiarities are marked, though modified by those of 
neighbouring schools, it is also true that substantially the same 
features and adjustments are often common to many regions, 
even to those situated at a considerable distance apart. Thus 
the type of pier which occurs at Meaux is found also at 
Rouen, on the one hand, and at Troyes, on the other; while 
the round columns of Paris are found at Lisieux, at Laon, 
and at Dijon. 

But there are further developments and important character- 
istics to be noticed in the early Gothic buildings ; and it may 
be well to begin our consideration of these in the piers of the 
ground story. The changes wrought in these piers constitute 
one of the most interesting branches of the subject, and afford 
illustration of some fundamental principles of the Gothic style. 
The piers of the earlier transitional buildings, made up of square 
members and engaged vaulting shafts, like those of St. Germer, 
and the main piers of Noyon and Senlis, could hardly be im- 
proved in respect to functional adaptability and expression. But 
they were inconveniently and unnecessarily bulky. The later 
piers of this type, like those of Meaux, were much diminished 
in volume, and were designed with elegance ; but the plain 
round column made a still more slender and convenient sup- 
port, and this with some additions ultimately gave the most 
satisfactory form. 

The monocylindrical column by itself was soon felt to be 



124 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 




defective in affording no independent supports from the pave- 
ment for the various members of the superstructure. Such a 
column did not partake of the organic composition that now 
characterized every other part of the structure. Its use implied 

a partial return to a radically 
different mode of building 
which had become obsolete. 
Attempts to improve it were 
made, and a new and strictly 
functional form was soon 
devised, a very early, per- 
haps the first, example of 
which may be studied in the 
nave of the Cathedral of 
Paris. 

The first step in the 
change appears to have 
Fir,. 53 . -impost of Choir, Paris. been connected with a new 

adjustment to its load of the form of the abacus of the great 
capital of the round column, an adjustment rendered necessary 
by the employment of two arch orders in the great arcade, 
instead of one. In the 
choir of the same cathe- 
dral the arches of this 
arcade are of one order, 
on the choir side, and of 
two orders on the side 
of the aisle, as shown 
in the plan (Fig. 53). 
The transverse rib a of 
the aisle vault is so wide 
that the diagonals b and 
c, which are also rather 
wide, leave little of the 
abacus surface unoccu- 
pied on the aisle side ; 
while the bases of the 




FlG. 54. — Impost of Nave, Paris 



vaulting shafts d, e, f, on the opposite side, are so much spread 
out that the square abacus which carries this compound load fits 
it sufficiently well. But in the nave (Fig. 54), where the great 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



125 




arches are of two orders on both sides, and where the vaulting 
shafts and the ribs of the aisle vault are smaller and more com- 
pactly grouped, the square abacus is not so well fitted to its 
load. Large portions of its surface, a, b, c, and d, are left un- 
occupied, although its corners are cut off, 
in order, apparently, to diminish this useless 
surface. With this result the builders ap- 
pear not to have been satisfied, and a better 
adjustment was soon reached as the result 
of a series of experimental changes, which 
finally gave the lower pier a more organic 
correspondence with the superstructure, and 
produced what may be regarded as the typical 
FlG - 55- form of pier of the developed Gothic style. 

In this form of pier the vaulting shafts receive independent sup- 
port from the pavement, and the logic of the transitional com- 
pound pier, in a measure lost by the use of the single column, is 
recovered, while the excessive bulk of the early form is avoided. 

The first modification 
in the nave of Paris oc- 
curs in the sixth pier 
counting from the tran- 
sept. Here a smaller 
shaft is incorporated 
with the great round 
column to carry the 
weight of the vaulting 
shafts(givingthe section, 
Fig. 55), corresponding 
additions are made to 
the great capital and to 
the base, and larger por- 
tions are cut off from the 
corners of the abacus, as 
shown in the plan (Fig. 
56). This was, however, 
but a partial improvement. It provided an independent support 
for the vaulting shafts of the high vaulting, but it left the archi- 
volts and the ribs of the aisle vaulting without such supports. 
The added shaft could not be happily incorporated with the 




u^p 




FIG. 56. — Impost of Sixth Pier, Paris. 



126 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 




FIG. 57- 



original column, and the abacus is still ill adjusted to the load. 
These faults were immediately recognized. It was seen that 
if the vaulting shafts were to have separate support in the lower 
pier, the other members rising from it ought to be supported in 

like manner. Accordingly in the 
seventh and westernmost pier, 
this new idea was carried out, 
and an organic pier was pro- 
duced which furnished the model 
that was thenceforth employed, 
with many variations of propor- 
tions and details, and which at- 
tained its highest perfection in 
the naves of Chartres, Amiens, 
and Reims. The section of this 
pier is shown in Fig. 57, its abacus 
surface with the plan of the imposed load in Fig. 58, and a per- 
spective view taken from the opposite triforium in order to 
show as much as can be seen of the upper surface of the 
abacus and of the form of the load is given in Fig. 59. It 
will be seen from the 
plan that the abacus of 
the capital of the great 
central column is now 
circular, that the abaci 
of the capitals of the 
subordinate shafts are 
square in agreement 
with the sections of the 
sub-archivolts and the 
transverse rib of the aisle 
vault which they re- 
spectively support, and 
that the engaged column 
which supports the vault- 
ing shafts has a seg- 
mental projection which forms a moulded band but not a proper 
capital, the reason being that no arch springs from it. The 
vaulting shafts which rise from it are crowned with capitals at 
the springing of the vaults. It will be observed that the plan 




FIG. 58.— Impost of Seventh Pier, Paris. 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



12J 



of the impost is unsymmetrical, one of the lateral vaulting shafts 
advancing forward of the other. This is caused by the neces- 
sary thickening of the arcade spandrel on that side in order to 
reenforce the great piers of the western towers which adjoin 




Fig. 59. — Impost of Seventh Pier, Nave of Paris. 



this bay. The adjustment of this compound abacus to its load 
could hardly be improved. There is even less unoccupied 
space here than on the square abacus of the choir already ex- 
amined. The form of the whole, as exhibited in the perspective 



128 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

elevation, is admirable. The smaller capitals, proportionately 
diminished in height, are finely incorporated with the central 
capital, and the whole composition is remarkable for beauty 
and organic expression. 

An exceptional form of pier occurs in one bay of the nave 
of the Cathedral of Laon. In this case a round column is reen- 
forced by five detached monolithic shafts of great slenderness, 
one supporting each angle of the square abacus, and the fifth 
being placed under the vaulting shafts (as in the section, Fig. 
60). But while by this arrangement the lower pier is mate- 
rially strengthened, it cannot be considered a good form, for the 
reason that the corner shafts are 
not organically adjusted to the 
arch orders and vault ribs. 1 It 
was apparently not felt to be satis- 
factory, and it was not perpetuated, 
as it could not logically be, in the 
Gothic system. 

In the Cathedral of Soissons 
the idea embodied in the sixth pier 
of the nave of Paris is carried out 
systematically in the general 
scheme. 2 Here the engaged shaft, 

having been a part of the original 
Fig. 60. , . & , r . _ . fa 

design, and not, as in Pans, an 

afterthought, is better adjusted, and the whole system is harmoni- 
ous and elegant (A, Fig. 61). The added shaft is more slender 
than in Paris. Instead of an independent abacus to its capital, 
the abacus of the great capital, which in this case is octagonal, 
is carried out so as to cover it. A glance at the illustration will 
show that the shaft is well adjusted to the superimposed vault- 
ing shafts, and that the whole composition is a great improve- 
ment on that of Paris, represented at B in the same figure. 
The single engaged shaft, besides affording a visible support 
in the lower system for the high vaulting, has also the function 
of stiffening the pier in the direction of the inward thrust of 

1 Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Pilier, p. 163, refers to this form of pier as a good one. 

2 This cathedral, which dates from the latter part of the twelfth and the begin- 
ning of the thirteenth centuries, is strikingly harmonious in total effect, and we shall 
have occasion to notice other features of it as we go on. 




GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



129 



the aisle vaults. This single shaft occurs, also, in the apse 
of Reims, 1 while in that of the Cathedral of Troyes it is found 
together with another similar shaft on the opposite side of 
the pier, which carries the transverse rib of the aisle vault ; 
and in the apse of Mantes the single shaft appears in con- 
nection with a slender coved pilaster incorporated with the 
cylindrical pier. 

In the vaults and vaulting systems of the more advanced 
Gothic of the end of the twelfth and the early part of the 







vyi—r^. 




A B 

FIG. 61. — Pier of Soissons and Paris. 

thirteenth centuries the continuity of support from the pave- 
ment upwards becomes constant, and though not every indi- 
vidual member of the superstructure has a support of its own 
from the foundation, there is always at least one shaft in the 
ground-story pier for each group of members above. 

From the beginning of the thirteenth century the quadri- 
partite vault, now rendered lighter than before, in its rib skel- 

1 M. Enlart, in an instructive paper entitled "Villard fie Hounecourt et les Cis- 
terciens," published in the Bibliotheque de rAcole des Chartes, vol. lvi., 1S95, cites two 
other instances, in Saint-Quentin and Vaucelles respectively. 
K 



130 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

eton as well as in the vault shell itself, was in general, though 
still not exclusive, use, and the form of pier that was developed 
in the westernmost bay of Paris became the most prevalent. 
Though the crowns of the ribs of the early Gothic vaults were 
sometimes, as we have seen (p. 65, note), on about the same 
level, as in St.-Germer-de-Fly, they were more frequently very 
domical. But excessive doming was now systematically avoided, 
and, though the vault crowns never became level, the crowns of 
their sustaining ribs varied little in height. 

There is one important characteristic of French Gothic 
vaulting that is rarely noticed, and its real significance has not, 
I believe, as yet been explained by those writers who have ob- 
served it. I refer to the irregular and twisted surfaces already 
(p. ill) alluded to in the vaults of Paris. These result from the 
stilting of the longitudinal ribs, by which their springing is raised 
to a much higher level than that of the main arches of the vault. 
A prevalent misunderstanding of the Gothic vault has arisen 
from the supposition that, by taking advantage of the proper- 
ties of the pointed arch, all its ribs may be made to spring from 
the same level, and reach the same height. 1 It is, indeed, true 
that the use of the pointed arch made it possible to accomplish 
this ; but it is equally true that in strictly Gothic clerestory 
vaulting the pointed arch was never so used. In such vaults 
the longitudinal rib is always stilted. This fact was noticed 
by Willis, 2 who merely remarks in relation to it that "it is a 
very universal arrangement of clerestory vaults, and is produc- 
tive of great beauty and convenience, but it leads to some diffi- 
culty in the form and arrangement of the vaulting surface." 
Other writers have supposed that this arrangement was intended 
to provide for largeness of clerestory openings ; thus Sir Gil- 
bert Scott says : 3 " The side arches were sometimes stilted, not 
from any necessity, but merely to afford greater space for 
clerestory windows." But that it was not adopted because it 
was productive of beauty or convenience, nor to afford greater 
space for clerestory windows, a just consideration of the struc- 



1 Cf. Furgusson's History of Architecture, vol. i. p. 517. 

2 " Essay on the Construction of the Vaults of the Middle Ages," published in the 
Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects, for the year 1842. 

3 lectures on the Rise and Development of Mediceval Architecture, vol. i. p. 63. 
London, 1879. 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



tural exigencies involved would conclusively show, even if it 
were not proved by the fact that the same peculiarity is con- 
stant in France long before the clerestory opening is developed 
so as to fill the whole space beneath the vault. In fact, the 




FIG. 62. — St. Leu d'Esserent. 



opening occupies but a small portion of this space in all early 
Gothic buildings, as in Paris, Mantes, Laon, St. Leu d'Esserent, 
the Collegiate Church of St. Frambourg at Senlis, and many 
others. Figure 62, a perspective view of one bay of the clerestory 



1 3 2 GUTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

of St. Leu d'Esserent, will illustrate this. Here the springing 
a of the longitudinal rib will be seen to be above the springing 
b of the main ribs by almost half the vertical height of the 
vault. It will be seen, too, that the intrados of the flying but- 
tress, visible through the window, meets the pier at the same 
level. It is well known that the thrusts of the great vault ribs 
are not confined to their points of springing, but that there is 
a tendency in the arches, when firmly abutted at these points, 
to rise at the haunches, in consequence of which they require 
to be reenforced in these parts. Now the method here employed, 
by which the line ab is made to rise vertically to the level a, 
brings the triangular vault surface bac into a plane which is 
inclined to the pier in the direction of the thrust of the diagonal 
rib; and, as the diagonal rib of the next adjoining compartment, 
with the corresponding portion of vault surface, is inclined to 
the same pier in the opposite direction, the obliquity of the 
pressures is neutralized ; and as the haunches of all the ribs 
are reenforced by a solid filling-in up to this level, a perfect 
concentration of the thrusts upon the pier is secured — the 
greatest force of these thrusts falling where the flying buttress 
is brought to bear. 1 The horizontal section (Fig. 63), taken at 
the level a (Fig. 62), will more fully explain the form of this 
portion of the vault, and the manner in which the pressures 
are gathered upon the pier. Here a, b, and c are the great ribs 
whose thrusts, in the direction of the arrows, are concentrated 
upon the pier d, and are counterbraced by the flying buttress e. 
In other words, the section through the vaulting conoid at about 
half the vertical height gives the triangle abc at A, and not 
the square abed at B, of the same figure, which is the form it 
would assume if the longitudinal arch were not stilted. 

No single feature could be chosen which would more clearly 
exhibit the essential principles of Gothic construction. It ex- 
hibits, in fact, its governing characteristic — that upon which, 
more than upon anything else, every other characteristic depends. 
Without this concentration of the vault thrusts as far up as they 
extend, the stability of the Gothic system could not be secured. 
By means of it the cross-strains are all effectively gathered upon 

1 This was apparently the intention, but actually the flying buttresses are not 
brought to bear precisely on the points of greatest thrust in St. Leu d'Esserent. as 
will be seen farther on. 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



ni> 



the compact pier, which is stiffened by the flying buttresses. It 
is therefore remarkable that so learned an authority as Sir Gil- 
bert Scott should fail to perceive the meaning of the stilting 
of the clerestory arch, and should so far err as to affirm that it 
did not arise from any necessity, but was adopted merely to 
afford space for clerestory windows. 




Fig. 63. 

How far this form of clerestory was afterwards taken ad- 
vantage of for larger openings, we shall see when we come 
to consider modes of enclosure. For the present we must con- 
fine our attention to the forms and adjustments of the vaults, 
the vaulting supports, and the general framework of the build- 
ings in which the Gothic style was assuming its perfected forms. 



i 3 4 G01HIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

In these vaults, as in those of earlier date, the only ribs 
employed are those which have a constructive office ; namely, 
the transverse, diagonal, and longitudinal ribs. Ridge ribs and 
surface ribs, which were sometimes introduced at a later period, 
do not appear at this epoch. Of the truly constructive ribs 
none are ever wanting, nor are suitable supports for them ever 
wanting in the piers. Throughout the building a structural 
reason is apparent for every member that meets the eye, though 
the manner in which the minor structural adjustments are 
effected continues to vary. 

In the nave of St. Leu d'Esserent, whose vaults we have 
just been considering, the piers are designed after the new 
manner that was established in the westernmost piers of Paris. 
They differ, however, in having a complete and symmetrical 
compound capital terminating the ground-story portion of each ; 
that is to say, the engaged shaft which supports the vaulting 
shafts has an independent capital at this level, like those of 
the other three shafts of the lower system. The lower pier 
has thus the defect of lacking a continuous organic connection 
with the high vaulting. It is, like the older monocylindrical 
columns, complete in itself. It is therefore less satisfactory 
than its prototype of Paris, where the capital is omitted from 
the shaft that supports the main vaulting group, and the eye 
is led upward by the continuity subsisting between the upper 
and the lower parts of the structure. The plan of the great 
abacus is changed from a circle (its form in Paris) to a square 
set diagonally with the square abaci of the subordinate capitals 
projecting from its angles, and set with their sides parallel with 
the axes of the building. This became the general form of the 
great abaci in the subsequent Gothic piers of the same type. 
In this system the shafts of the longitudinal ribs rest on the 
clerestory ledge, while the three principal vaulting shafts de- 
scend to the capital of the lower pier. The nave of St. Leu is 
but little subsequent in date to the choir and apse. It has the 
characteristics of the work of the end of the twelfth century. 

The nave of the Cathedral of Chartres followed quickly after 
that of St. Leu, 1 which it closely resembles in many of its fea- 

1 The architecture of Chartres is, for the most part, that of the close of the 
twelfth century. The lower portions of the choir at least must have been executed 
at that time. The nave may have been constructed very early in the thirteenth 
century. 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



tures, though the scheme is amplified and improved, and is 
carried out on a vastly grander scale. The general form of 
the vaulting is more pointed, the diagonal ribs, as well as the 
transverse ribs, having the pointed form, but the longitudinal 




.ii ".'111 !|| 

FIG. 64. — Chartres. 

rib is round-arched, and its stilting is even more marked than in 
St. Leu, the springing (Fig. 64) being at more than half the 
vertical height of the vault. 

The survival of this form of arch in the clerestory of a 
developed Gothic building affords an instructive illustration of 



136 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap 

the fact that the pointed arch is not always essential, but 
that the peculiar manner of adjusting the various structural 
arches is an even more important characteristic of Gothic vault- 
ing. The almost exclusive use of the pointed arch seems to be, 
indeed, indispensable to the ideal perfection of the style ; for 
by its use alone, at least in the transverse arches, can the thrusts 
be diminished to the utmost, and excessive doming avoided in 
the readiest way. Moreover, architectural harmony calls for its 
general use in a Gothic design. Yet in many of the finest 
Gothic buildings the round arch is often met with. It is fre- 
quently used for the diagonal ribs, it is always used (in the 
purest Gothic) in the westernmost transverse rib, where there 
is a great wheel window in the west front, and where its 
thrusts are met by the great towers of the facade ; but after 
transitional times it rarely occurs in the clerestory arches as here 
in Chartres. These are the arches in which, on the common 
theory, the pointed form is of the greatest utility, because it 
offers the simplest means of bringing the crown of this narrow- 
est arch of the vault up to the required level. Nevertheless 
the builders of Chartres chose to retain the round arch here. 
Why did they do so ? It looks as if they had so strongly felt 
the advantage of stilting as a means of effecting the utmost 
concentration of the thrusts against the pier that they preferred 
to make the fullest use of it, even though it necessitated the 
round arch because the pointed form would in this case have 
carried the crown too high. The advantage of the pointed arch 
over the round arch, in consequence of its weaker thrusts, had 
not to be considered here because the clerestory arches mutually 
abut each other. But in the greater arches of the vault, which 
are not thus abutted, the builders have shown their appreciation 
of the value of the pointed arch by giving to these arches a 
very acutely pointed form. 

The builders of this church went even farther in the use 
of stilting as a means of concentrating thrusts, and applied the 
principle to the vaulting of the aisles also. This is unusual. 
The vaulting of the aisles being on a much smaller scale, and 
the abutments of the ground story having far greater propor- 
tionate bulk and resistance than the abutments of the clerestory, 
the necessity for stilting hardly exists ; and accordingly stilting 
is of very rare occurrence in the aisles of Gothic buildings. This 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



137 



stilting of the aisle vaulting of Chartres, though practically 
unnecessary, affords, however, another proof that this method 
of construction was not resorted to as a means of obtaining 
large openings, for the aisle openings here do not nearly fill 
the bays. 

The lower piers of Chartres are alternately round columns 
with four engaged octagonal shafts, and octagonal columns 
with four round shafts. The lower vaulting shaft has no capi- 
tal, but is merely banded by the abacus moulding of the great 
compound capital, as in the westernmost pier of Paris. The 
abacus of the great capital has a plan like that of St Leu, ex- 
cept for the difference occasioned by the omission of a capital 
in the lower vaulting shaft. Five vaulting shafts, instead 
of three as at St. Leu, rise from the great capital, the shaft 
of the longitudinal rib being brought down with the other shafts 
as in the main piers of Laon. These shafts are of three mag- 
nitudes, corresponding with the proportions of the vault ribs 
which they respectively sustain ; and the alternation of the 
round and octagonal forms of the ground-story system is car- 
ried out in them — octagonal shafts being placed over round 
columns, and round ones over octagonal columns. The adjust- 
ment of the great abacus to its load is as perfect as possible, 
and this ultimate type of Gothic pier received no more logical, 
or more beautiful, development until the nave of Amiens was 
built. 

The system of the nave of the fine Church of St. Pierre of 
Chartres, situated in the lower part of the town, is worthy of 
special notice as an instance of beautiful twelfth-century Gothic. 
This church exhibits a curious lack of uniformity in its general 
scheme, even in the apparently contemporaneous parts. It is 
largely of the same general character as the cathedral, though 
the proportions are very different ; but below the triforium the 
design of one side is wholly unlike that of the other. In the 
lower piers of the north side a modified form of the twelfth- 
century type of compound pier occurs, while on the south side 
the form consisting of a central column with four engaged 
shafts is employed. The modification effected in the piers of 
the north side consists in the use of a single vaulting shaft on 
the ground story for the high vaulting, instead of starting the 
whole vaulting system from the pavement. This shaft is treated 



138 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

like the corresponding shaft in the seventh pier of Paris, and the 
piers of the cathedral just described, having no capital but merely 
a band of mouldings from the abaci of the capitals of the ground- 
story impost. In all respects except the forms of the lower piers 
the work has the same character and the same profiling on both 
sides of the nave. It appears, therefore, to be of the same 
epoch, and affords an unusual instance of disregard of symmetry 
in composition. Above the triforium ledge the system is uni- 
form, and the whole design is logical and elegant. The vault- 
ing is of the finest quadripartite Gothic character, and the 
clerestory is of unusual proportionate height. The system (Fig. 
65) throughout affords an admirable illustration of the purest 
Gothic art that immediately preceded the great monuments of 
the early thirteenth century in which the style culminates. 

The Cathedral of Reims, which from the date of its com- 
mencement comes among the next works in chronological order, 
is a vast monument of the same general type as the foregoing. 
It was begun very early in the thirteenth century, though only 
small portions of it were executed at this early date. The 
upper parts of the choir, and the whole of the nave, were built 
after 1250. Yet the general scheme is that of the earlier epoch. 
Here the arches of the vault are even more acutely pointed 
than at Chartres, and the round arch occurs nowhere in the 
system. The vaulting shafts are finely proportioned, and all 
descend to the capital of the lower pier, upon which they are 
well gathered. This pier is of the fully developed form, but 
its great compound capital is not so well composed as at Paris 
and Chartres. Its smaller members are not, as in those build- 
ings, diminished in height, but have the same altitude as the 
large central one, and the main lower vaulting shaft, though it 
has not a real capital, is banded with carved ornamentation like 
that of the great capital. But these details belong to the later 
work of Reims ; while, as I have said, the general structural 
form, though mostly late in execution, is early in idea. It is 
worthy of notice that some stilting and some winding of sur- 
faces occur in the aisle vaulting here. 

We now come to the building in which the Gothic system 
reaches its utmost consistent development — the nave of the 
Cathedral of Amiens (Plate 2), which was begun in the year 
1220. Not only is this nave the grandest in scale of any in 



Plate II. 




1 1220- 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



59 



France, being in height forty-two metres from the pavement to 
the crown of the vault, and in width nearly fifteen metres from 




Fig. 65. — Section of System of St. Pierre, Chartres. 

centre to centre of its piers, but its design is justly considered 
as the crowning glory of Gothic art; and it is a grand summing 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



up of the principles and constructive forms that had been grad- 
ually taking shape since the beginning of the twelfth century. 

The concentration of the high vaulting upon the pier is here 
managed by adjusting the longitudinal rib in a manner some- 
what different from that of the earlier constructions. The 
shaft of this rib (Fig. 66 and Plate 2) is not carried so high 
above the main impost as before, 
and hence it might at first glance 
appear that the stilting is slight. 
It will, however, be seen that a 
vertical line is maintained in the 
surface of the vault for a consider- 
able distance above the head of the 
shaft. This is effected by allowing 
the rib to interpenetrate so that 
its extrados is not freed from the 
masonry of the vault shell until a 
point at more than half the verti- 
cal height of the vault is reached. 
By this means the thrusts are con- 
centrated to the utmost, and all 
parts of the system are gathered 
into the smallest practicable com- 
pass. The main vaulting shaft is 
now, for the first time in piers of 
this type, a continuous member 
of the same diameter throughout, 
reaching from the pavement to 
the springing. The shafts of 
the diagonal ribs rest upon the 
fig. 66. — Amiens. great pier capitals as before, 

while those of the longitudinal ribs are brought down to the 
triforium ledge. This pier, taken as a whole, is a consummate 
achievement of Gothic art in which structural logic and beauty 
of design are joined to a degree that was hardly equalled in any 
other monument of the Middle Ages. 

Throughout the system of Amiens the abaci of the capitals 
are everywhere admirably adjusted in shape to the sections of 
the ribs and archivolts which they carry; and as these sections 
were changed in form during the progress of the work, the 




GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



141 




abaci of the upper portions are correspondingly different from 

those of the lower parts. On the ground story the archivolts 

and aisle-vault ribs, and consequently the abaci, have the square 

form that had prevailed 

until the close of the 

first quarter of the thir- 
teenth century ; while 

in the triforium and 

clerestory the sections 

of these members are 

modified so as to require 

abaci of various simple 

polygonal forms. 

An interesting piece 

of structural logic oc- FlG - 6 7- 

curs in the vaulting impost of the westernmost bay. In this 

bay the longitudinal rib is doubled for the sake of additional 

strength where the western towers join the nave. In conse- 
quence of this the shaft, which 
in the other bays carries the 
diagonal rib, has here to be 
given to the support of the 
extra rib ; and the diagonal rib 
is added to the load of the great 
vaulting shaft which carries the 
transverse rib. In order to 
prepare the capital of this shaft 
to accommodate the additional 
rib, an angular projection is 
given to the abacus, producing 
an unsymmetrical form. This 
will be better understood from 
the impost plan (Fig. 67), and 
the perspective elevation (Fig. 
68). Thus were the Gothic 
builders ever ready to admit 
any irregularities of form that 
and it is remarkable that they 

so managed these departures from regularity that they rarely 

failed to produce an harmonious total effect. 



\ 




FlG. 68. — Amiens. 

structural exigencies demanded 



i 4 2 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

I have already remarked that no single Gothic building unites 
all of the perfections of which the entire group of French monu- 
ments affords illustration ; but of the nave of Amiens it may be 
said that a more admirable embodiment of Gothic principles 
can hardly be conceived. Words can convey no just idea of the 
majesty and harmony of its proportions, or of the refined beauty 
of its grandly monumental sculptured ornamentation. 

The nave of St. Denis, dating from near the middle of the 
thirteenth century, though on a considerably smaller scale than 
that of Amiens, is also a fine example of the fully developed 
Gothic style. Here the diagonal ribs of the vaulting are round 
arched, and the transverse ribs are but slightly pointed. The 
vaults are stilted in the manner of those of Amiens. The piers 
are of the clustered type of the twelfth century in a much im- 
proved form. They are somewhat like those of Meaux, only 
still more compact and elegant. 

The enormous and magnificent choir of Beauvais, as it has 
come down to us, does not exhibit the design of its original 
architect. In less than a century after its completion, 1 the 
upper portions began to yield, owing in part, perhaps, to the 
defective workmanship with which the prodigious scheme had 
been hastily carried out ; and changes had to be made which 
materially altered its character. The system was originally much 
like that of Amiens developed on an exaggerated scale. The 
main supports proving inadequate, it was found necessary to 
subdivide the gigantic ground-story arches by inserting inter- 
mediate piers carrying intermediate transverse ribs ; and thus 
to convert the original quadripartite vaulting into vaulting of the 
sexpartite form. The monument thus remodelled has survived 
without essential change ; and it stands to-day as an instruc- 
tive illustration of the folly of exaggerating proportions, and as 
marking the first departure of the Gothic builders from the 
sound principles and methods of execution that had previously 
governed them. The stupendous structure, nevertheless, ex- 
hibits some features that further illustrate the fertility of inven- 
tion of the Gothic builders. Among these is the pier of the 
ground story, which, though in the main composed like the pier 
of Amiens, has some points of difference. The central column, 

1 Cf. Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Construction, p. 174. 



iv GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 143 

for instance, instead of being cylindrical has a somewhat ellip- 
tical section, with its longer axis at right angles to that of the 
building. The main vaulting shaft is more deeply embedded in 
this main body of the pier than are the archivolt shafts ; while 
on the side of the aisle a broad pilaster with a group of three 
engaged shafts occur. The entire section (Fig. 69) gives a 
form that stiffens the pier 1 in the direction of the thrusts, which 
in a system of such extraordinary height might have caused 
deflection in piers of the usual shape. In the transept, however, 
the second pier from the crossing on each side is like the piers 
of Amiens, and very elegant in 
form. The elliptical form is 
not needed in this position be- 
cause the pier comes between 
the more massive pier at the 
crossing and another massive 
one intended to support the 
tower with which the aisle of 
the transept was designed to 
terminate. These stronger 
piers take the main thrusts and 
relieve the one between them 
considerably. Thus we have 
here another interesting illus- 
tration Of the logic Of Gothic de- FlG " ^-Beauvais. 

sign in which uniformity of parts is unhesitatingly disregarded 
where structural necessity does not demand it. The piers of 
the apse have, as usual, no lateral shafts ; but in front they 
have each a single slender shaft as at Soissons and Reims ; 
while on the side of the aisle they are powerfully reenforced 
by three engaged shafts carrying the ribs of the aisle vaulting. 
Another noticeable feature of this system is the abacus of the 
great pier capital, which, instead of a square or octagonal form, 
has a broken plan which exactly corresponds with the impost 
section. These nice adjustments are managed in such a way as 
to show that the designer of this building was at once a sagacious 
constructor and a consummate artist. All those parts of the 
system which belong to the original fabric are remarkable alike 

1 I refer to the main piers of the existing sexpartite system. These alone, in the 
straight part of the choir, belong to the original construction. 




144 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



for mechanical fitness and for beauty of design. That so great 
a master should not have taken every precaution against im- 
perfect execution, and should not have been content to work 
upon a safe and reasonable scale, is much to be regretted. 

The aisle system of Beauvais is peculiar and worthy of 
notice. The vaulting is very acutely pointed, and the longitu- 
dinal rib (Fig. 70) is stilted in an unusual way. This rib has 
no supporting shaft, but is made to penetrate the diagonal rib 
just below its haunch ; and as the 
longitudinal rib of an aisle com- 
partment is not the narrowest arch 
in the vault (as it is in the clere- 
story), and as the diagonal is 
acutely pointed, the relation to 
each other of the curves of these 
two arches is such that no percep- 
tible wind in the vault surface 
results. 




Fig. 70. — Beauvais. 



We have now enough considered 
the leading types of forms and ad- 
justments in the internal vaulting 
systems of the great French 
churches of the best epoch, and 
we may pass to the consideration 
of the forms of the external sup- 
ports which complete the skeleton 
of the Gothic structure. We have 
seen (p. 78) that the builders of 
the choir of St.-Germer-de-Fly in- 
troduced an abutting arch against the piers of that early 
structure ; but that this was placed beneath the aisle roof, and 
that it was thus both ineffective and invisible. It is impossible 
to say how soon after this the true Gothic flying buttress spring- 
ing over the roof of the aisle was brought into existence; but 
one of the earliest remaining examples of this important and 
characteristic member of the Gothic system is that of the 
Church of St. Martin of Laon. The pier buttress (a, Fig. 71) 
is here a plain, square-edged mass of masonry reenforced by the 
flying buttress (b) which springs from the great buttress of the 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



145 



aisle (V). The flying buttress is a plain half-arch heavily loaded 
with masonry brought up to a right line which slopes a little 
less steeply than the chord of the arc, and is covered by a 
flat coping. The massive lower buttress (c), which rises through 
the aisle roof, is prepared to receive the flying buttress by the 
set-off {d), and being carried over the transverse arch of the 




^- 



FIG. 71. — St. Martin, Laon. 



aisle, it abuts against the pier at the springing of the vaults. 
The vaults are thus effectively braced above and below ; but 
the construction is needlessly heavy. More lightness and ele- 
gance of form were attained in the nearly contemporaneous 
flying buttresses of the choir and apse of St. Germain-des-Pr6s 
(Fig. 43, p. 100). Here the intrados of the arch is bevelled on 
each edge, and the pier buttress has an engaged shaft with a 

L 



146 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



fine capital of the early type. This is perhaps the earliest 
instance of a shaft in this position, which became a constant 
feature of the developed Gothic. Flying buttresses of still 
lighter construction occur in the apse of St. Leu d'Esserent 
(Fig. 72), which dates apparently from about 1170. The 
pier buttress does not in this system rise above the head of 




Fig. 72. — Apse of St. Leu d'Esserent. 

the abutting arch. The curved wall of the apse presents, 
therefore, an unbroken surface above this level, while below 
it the arrangement is like that of St. Martin of Laon. The 
outer buttress has three set-offs and rises to a considerable 
height above the roof of the aisles before the arch, which 
penetrates its inner face, is sprung. The straight slope is 
not here continued to the outer face of the buttress, but in- 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



147 



tersects the flat coping, with which the outer portion of this 
buttress is finished at a considerable distance within the edge. 
In this case no portion of a lower abutment is visible above the 
aisle roof. 

Some improvements upon these forms are shown in the 
buttresses (Fig. 73) of the nave of the same building, which is a 




FIG. 73.— Nave ot St. Leu d'Esserent. 

little later in date. The buttress of the apse, by the number 
and depth of its set-offs, has a slightly sloping general outline, 
as if the builders had considered that this form gave increased 
efficiency. The same inward inclination of the outer face of the 
upright buttress occurs frequently, though not constantly, in 
other early buildings. It was found, however, that this was 
unnecessary ; and accordingly the outer faces of these buttresses 



1 48 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

of the nave of St. Leu rise more vertically, and have a more 
equal volume at different levels. They also exhibit the further 
improvement of a gabled, instead of a flat, top. This form is 
better adapted to the shedding of rain-water, and is also more 
pleasing to the eye. The pier buttress, here as in the apse, 
does not rise beyond the flying buttress, the clerestory wall 
above being unbroken throughout its length. This is the case, 
also, in many other transitional Gothic buildings — as in the 
apse of St. Remi of Reims and that of St. Germain-des-Pres of 
Paris. This pier buttress is not, as in the preceding examples, 
in the form of a continuous pilaster-like member. It has a deep 
set-off near the roof of the aisle, supported by a substructure (a, 
Fig. 73) which rises through the roof and is carried over the 
transverse arch of the aisle vault. Beneath this set-off the 
buttress is pierced so as to afford a passageway. 

Other instances of early flying buttresses still extant, and 
showing the same general characteristics, are those oi the apse 
of Gonesse (Seine-et-Oise) and the nave of Auvers. Many 
early flying buttresses were ill adjusted to the pressures of 
the vaults from want of accurate knowledge where they should 
abut. Repeated experiment was required before the precise 
points upon which they should be brought to bear was ascer- 
tained. The flying buttress of the nave of St. Leu effectually 
meets the higher pressures exerted by the vault, but those nearer 
the springing were not securely braced. The piers began ap- 
parently to yield soon after the completion of the work, and 
it was found necessary to insert a second arch beneath the first 
in all of the buttresses along the nave except those nearest the 
east and west ends, where enough abutment is afforded by the 
towers. Experience at length showed that the lateral pressures 
of vaults cannot be concentrated upon any single point, but 
that they may be gathered upon a line extending for a consider- 
able distance from the springing upwards. 

In the buttress system of the nave of Noyon (Fig. 74), 
which appears to date from the time of the reconstruction of 
the vaults early in the thirteenth century, the flying buttress 
assumes an improved form in being deeper — thus covering a 
greater vertical extent upon the pier against the thrusts. The 
intrados of the arch, which in St. Leu is on a level with the 
impost of the longitudinal rib of the vaulting, is here at Noyon 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



149 



considerably below this level, while its superimposed masonry 
reaches higher than in St. Leu ; and instead of a shallow pier 
buttress reaching only as high as the arch, there is a vig- 
orously salient one carried up to the top of the clerestory 
wall. The flying buttress is thus brought to bear upon a line 
(already in part fortified by a pier buttress) rather than upon a 
point. What is the form of 
the structure under the aisle 
roof, I do not know ; but as 
this nave has a high vaulted 
triforium gallery, there is prob- 
ably an abutment of some 
kind carried over its transverse 
arches to meet the pier at the 
springing of the vaults. It 
may be added that this but- 
tress system has proved effec- 
tual. The vaults appear to have 
stood securely for more than 
six hundred years. The straight 
sloping back of the flying but- 
tress, as well as the top of the 
upright buttress, here assumes 
the gabled form ; and a small 
finial upon the gable marks 
perhaps the first attempt to 
render pleasing by ornament 
this important functional mem- 
ber. But while the flying but- 
tress of Noyon is an improve- 
ment on those of the preceding 
form in offering resistance to the vault thrusts for a greater 
distance up and down the pier, it is not altogether an improve- 
ment architecturally. It has not the elegance of most other 
early Gothic buttresses. It is even heavier than that of St. 
Martin of Laon. 

In the apse and choir of Soissons, which dates from about 
the beginning of the thirteenth century, still further improve- 
ments in the form of the flying buttress were made. 1 [ere ( Fig. 
75) two arches were established in the original design, and these 




FIG. 74. — Nave of Xoyon. 



5° 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



are so adjusted that the thrusts of the vaulting are completely 
met. The lower arch abuts against the springing, and the 
upper one meets the pressures of the haunches. Thenceforth 
the employment of two arches in the buttress system became 
practically constant. The top of the inner half of the great 
outer buttress here at Soissons is carried up above the back of 
the flying buttress, adding by its 
weight to the stability of the whole. 
The upper surfaces all have the 
gabled form, and over each gable 
end an elaborate finial is placed. 
The pier buttress has an engaged 
shaft with base and capital under 
each arch — as in the earlier in- 
stances of St.-Germain-des-Pres of 
Paris and St. Remi of Reims. 

The magnificent buttress sys- 
tem of the Cathedral of Meaux, 
which is nearly contemporaneous 
with Soissons, has (Fig. 51, p. 121) 
the double form that is necessitated 
by the existence of double aisles — 
as in the original system of the 
Cathedral of Paris already de- 
scribed (p. 112). At Meaux the 
inner part of the system has two 
arches as at Soissons, while the 
outer part has but one arch. 

Not long after were constructed 
the grand and unique flying but- 
tresses of the Cathedral of Chartres, 
in which the two arches are connected by an elegant shafted 
arcade. These are at once powerful abutments and effective 
architectural features. 

But the finest development of the flying buttress, in a single- 
aisled building, is that of the nave of the Cathedral of Amiens 
(Fig. y6); while the fullest expression of the Gothic spirit in 
this member as adjusted to a double-aisled construction is found 
in the choir and apse of Reims (Fig. yy). 

The evolution and adjustment of the pinnacle, which is a 




Apse of Soissons. 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



iSi 



conspicuous feature in the developed style, was rapid after the 
advantage of weighting the top of the buttress was recognized. 
At Chartres, where the superimposed weight terminates in the 
form of a truncated pyramid on an oblong base instead of a 
gabled coping like that of Soissons, we get what appears to be 
one of the intermediate steps of this development. But at 
Chartres, as at Soissons, the 
weighting mass of masonry is 
placed over the inner portion 
of the buttress. It was, however, 
presently seen that it would be 
more effectual if placed farther 
out. Accordingly at Amiens it 
is set flush with the outer face of 
the buttress. Here the form 
was originally (as shown in Fig. 
J6) 1 that of an upright rectan- 
gular mass of masonry, orna- 
mented on each face with a 
shafted arch and a richly 
sculptured cornice, crowned with 
a steep pyramid having crocketed 
angles, and terminating in a 
finial. The Gothic pinnacle here 
stands forth in its most monu- 
mental form, and in essential 
completeness. But the inventive 
faculties of the Gothic artists 
were fertile in variations upon 
this feature (in which, as in all 
other features of the system, 
constructive and ornamental 

functions are admirably combined), and among the grandest 
products of their inventive skill are the magnificent pinnacles 
of the apse of Reims (Fig. 77), which date from about the 

1 The upper portions of the buttresses of the nave of Amiens have been remodelled 
in the Flamboyant style with exception of the one next to the transept, which retains 
its original character in all but the pinnacle. This pinnacle, though altered, is o( an 
earlier and more simple type than the rest; and it seems to justify the restoration 
given by Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Cathedrale (Fig. 20, p. 329), from which that of my 
illustration is taken. The rest of the illustration is drawn from a photograph. 




Nave of Amiens. 



I5 2 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap, iv 

middle of the thirteenth century. In the design of these the 
inner portion of the top of the buttress is capped with a gable, 
while the outer portion consists of an open shafted canopy, sur- 
mounted by a massive octagonal pyramid with four lesser pyra- 
mids covering the angles of the square base on which they rest. 
Thus were the forms of the external supports, no less than those 




of the interior, gradually developed as the structural exigencies 
of the system were more and more perfectly apprehended, and 
in such a manner that architectural beauty, as well as functional 
fitness, was ever secured. These hard-working abutments thus 
became at length the most strikingly ornamental features of 
the Gothic exterior, insomuch that their important mechanical 
office has been sometimes lost sight of. In French Gothic, 
however, after 1160 the stability of the structure is absolutely 
dependent upon them. 



CHAPTER V 

GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

III. Modes of Enclosure and General Forms 

From the vaults and their internal and external supports, 
which together constitute the essential structure, we may now 
pass to the consideration of modes of enclosure. 

In the transitional buildings massive walls filled the spaces 
between the piers much as they had done in Romanesque con- 
structions. The openings remained small and the round arch 
was not seldom retained in them, as at Noyon and Senlis. The 
nave of the Cathedral of Paris affords a good illustration at once 
of the early forms of wall and opening, and of the changes that 
were quickly introduced, here and elsewhere, as the Gothic idea 
began to take more complete form in the minds of the builders. 
Of the two bays of the clerestory of that building shown in 
Fig. yS, 1 the one on the beholder's right illustrates the design 
according to which the whole nave was originally built. 2 It is the 
bay adjoining the transept, and the great pier c is one of the 
four piers of the crossing. In this bay the clerestory window is 
a simple pointed arched opening above the level of the spring- 
ing of the vaults ; and, although larger than such openings had 
usually been in Romanesque design, it is nevertheless only an 
opening in a wall in which the area of the solid is still greater 
than that of the void. Beneath the clerestory is a circular open- 
ing into the upper triforium, or the space between the vault of 
the triforium gallery and the timber roof which covers it. This 
opening is divided by a simple form of tracery which is worthy 
of notice as one of the earliest extant instances of tracery. The 
whole design exhibits a good deal of massive wall space, and an 
eye not quick to recognize the main structural features might 

1 This being a perspective view, looking upwards from the opposite triforium, all 
the forms appear a little foreshortened. 

2 Cf. De Ghihermy, Itinera ire Arckeologique de Paris, pp. So, Si. 

153 



54 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



not readily perceive that this is really a building whose stability 
depends primarily not upon its walls, but upon its framework. 

Early in the thirteenth century the original vaults of this 
nave, which had been completed towards the close of the pre- 
ceding century, were damaged by fire and had to be repaired. 1 
It would appear, indeed, that their lateral cells were wholly 




Fig. 78. — Clerestory, Nave of Paris. 

reconstructed and somewhat changed in form ; for the original 
longitudinal ribs, which remain in place, are considerably below 
the present vault surfaces 2 (as may be seen in Fig. 78). Con- 

1 Cf. Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Cathedrale, p. 292. 

2 They are so in some, though not in all, of the bays. Indeed, great and very 
puzzling variations occur in the different bays of this clerestory. For instance, in 
the first five bays on the north side of the nave, counting from the transept, the 
original longitudinal ribs are surmounted by other arches, in each of which the ex- 
trados is more acutely pointed than the intrados, which follows the form of the 
original rib, — thus giving a more pointed shape to the vault cell. But the sixth, 
seventh, and eighth bays have their old ribs raised by stilting to the new level. In 
the sixth and seventh bays the outline of the window head is not concentric with its 
archivolt, but is rendered more pointed by a singular filling in between the tracery 
and the archivolt, — as in Fig. 79. 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



!55 



temporaneously with this repairing and remodelling of these 
nave vaults, great changes were making in other parts of the 
building, chiefly in the clerestory, in conformity with develop- 
ments that had elsewhere taken place. Among these develop- 
ments was the enlargement of apertures, and their subdivision 
by mullions and simple forms of tracery. The clerestory 
apertures of the nave of St. Leu d'Esserent (Fig. 80) show the 
first step in this direction — which consisted in the grouping of 
two pointed openings with a circular one under an enclosing 
pointed arch. The rudiments of this form of compound opening 
reach back to times anterior to those of all Western Romanesque 
art, though they rarely, if ever, occur 
in any variety of Western Romanesque. 
Adumbrations of it are found in the 
architecture of Central Syria as early 
as the sixth century — as in the Church 
of Oalb-Louzeh, where two round- 
arched openings are grouped with a 
circular one (Fig. 81), but without an 
embracing arch. In the later Byzantine 
style the same grouping frequently oc- 
curs with the addition of the embracing 
arch, as in Fig. 82, from a small church 
in Athens. In the transitional Gothic 
it first, perhaps, appears internally, as in the triforium of St. 
Germer (Oise), and later in the triforium of the nave of Noyon, 
— where a trefoil takes the place of the circle in the piercing of 
the tympanum. In the clerestory of Noyon two round-headed 
windows are placed side by side, while the tympanum above 
remains solid. But now a new and far-reaching development 
of these germ forms had begun, the progress of which was most 
rapid. In the openings of the clerestory of the nave of St. 
Leu, coupled pointed arches are surmounted by an open circle 
having a thinner plate, or panel, of stone pierced with a six- 
foiled opening. The plane of masonry pierced by the main 
openings is in retreat from the face of the clerestory wall, and 
a moulded and shafted arch flush with this wall throws the 
whole design into two orders. The scheme is very beautiful in 
its monumental simplicity. Similar openings, with more en- 
riched archivolts, occur in the nearly contemporaneous clere- 




FlG. 79. 



i 5 6 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



story of the choir of. Soissons. In such examples we have 
the beginnings of the typical Gothic opening in which a large 
space is subdivided by mullions and tracery of graceful forms 
and elegant profiles ; and in these members no less than in other 
parts of the Gothic building, constructive exigencies were, as we 




Fig. 80. — St. Leu d'Esseieiu 



shall presently see, the moving cause of change in the forms. 
Even the enlargement of the opening was due primarily to the 
nature of the construction rather than to any original desire for 
great size, though the value of magnitude was doubtless more 
and more appreciated as constructive development went on. 

The apertures of the clerestories of St. Leu and of Soissons 
were followed almost immediately by those of the apsidal 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



157 




Qalb-Louzeh. 



chapels of the Cathedral of Reims (Fig. 83), which date from 
about 12 12; and, though designed on the same general scheme, 
have an entirely new char- 
acter. For here, instead of 
a solid tympanum with a 
circular piercing, we have the 
earliest form of tracery proper 
produced by building up an 
open framework of two 
pointed arches and a circle 
enclosing a sexfoil. Thus, 
instead of grouped openings, 
as at St. Leu and Soissons, 
we have a great single open- 
ing divided by slender bars 
of stone. These bars are 
not finished with flat surfaces, as if the openings were merely 
cut through the former plain tympanum, but are worked into 

agreeable forms, giving 
sections composed of 
rounds and hollows as- 
sociated with fillets (Sec- 
tion b, Fig. 184, p. 335). 
The rounds or roll 
mouldings become shafts 
by the addition of bases 
and capitals on the jambs 
and mullions. Thus was 
the so-called plate trac- 
ery converted into true 
Gothic or bar tracery- 1 

The great change 
referred to above, which 
was wrought in the 
clerestory of Paris soon 




Fig. 82. — Byzantine Church in Athens. 



1 M. Demaison, in an instructive article entitled " Les Architected de la < lathedrale 
cie Reims," published in the Bulletin Archeologique for the year 1894, refers to the 
Abbey Church of Orbais as having openings like those of Reims of an earlier .late. 
The Church of Orbais was begun, he finds, about A.D. 1200, and presumably by the 
same architect (Jean d'Orbais"! who designed the earlier portions ^\ Reims. 



i 5 8 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



after its first completion, consisted mainly in substituting 
enlarged and divided openings, like those of the apse of 




Fig. 83. — Apse of Reims. 



Reims, for the smaller ones of the primitive design. But 
these new openings of Paris mark one further step in the 



v GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 159 

development of tracery. The tracery of Reims, as will be 
seen (Fig. 83), is made up of many small pieces of stone 
jointed as in ordinary arch construction; while that of Paris 
is composed of few larger pieces. In this way it became 
possible to make the tracery bars much more slender and 
yet to secure equal strength. One of these inserted clere- 
story windows is seen in the left bay in Fig. 78. To effect the 
change the pretty circular opening over the triforium gallery, 
seen in the restored bay to the right, had to be sacrificed, and 
a string-course was inserted far below the springing of the 
vaults, and down to this level the splays of the new openings 
were brought. The tracery is even more simple than that of 
Reims, the sexfoil within the circle being omitted; but the work 
is remarkable for its lightness and elegance. The form of the 
window head is changed from that of the original window into 
a more acutely pointed arch which is nearly concentric with 
the arch of the remodelled vault above it. 1 Both of the new 
arches disagree strikingly with the old longitudinal rib which 
remains undisturbed. Such instances of the survival of por- 
tions of original work where occasion has given rise to altera- 
tion are numerous in mediaeval work; and they add much to 
the interest and historic value of these monuments. 

It may be questioned whether this alteration of the clere- 
story windows of Paris was an improvement to the building. 
The harmony and severe beauty of the old design, with the 
unique circular opening of the upper triforium, are somewhat 
impaired by the change. Moreover, while the tracery of the 
new openings is, in its mode of construction and in the slender- 
ness of its parts, an advance upon that of Reims, the open- 
ings themselves, in their relationship to the building, are less 
Gothic in character, since they do not fill the whole space 
between the piers. 

The utmost enlargement of the opening appears first to 
have been reached in the apsidal chapels of the ground story. 
In some early transitional buildings, as in St. Denis and Senlis, 
the openings in these chapels fill almost the whole space, but 
they are as yet too small to need dividing members. In the 

1 Many other particulars concerning the changes that were made in this building 
at this time are given by Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Construction, and elsewhere; but those 
noticed above are, for the most part, not referred to by him. 



160 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

apse of Reims the opening fills the entire space between the 
piers, and is so large as to require the dividing mullion and 
tracery. 

It was at length seen that, with the now complete organic 
framework which gave strength to the building, the walls might 
be practically dispensed with, and that the openings might 
always be made equal to the whole space between the piers. 
With the recognition of this fact the interest in the art of 
colour design in stained glass quickly increased, and it became 
the universal practice to fill the aisles and clerestory with re- 
splendent fields of translucent mosaic, the walls being wholly 
suppressed from a height only a few feet above the pavement. 

The mullions and tracery by which these great openings 
were divided were riecessary to support the expanses of enclos- 
ing glass against the force of winds ; and the greater the area 
of the opening, the larger was the number of dividing members 
required to afford this support. Thus was developed the elabo- 
rately subdivided, and highly ornamental, tracery which enriches 
the great openings of developed Gothic buildings. 

This enlargement of the aisle and clerestory openings, to 
the extent of doing away, except at the base of the ground 
story, with all solid masonry beneath the vault rib, resulted in 
an important simplification of the structure — the archivolt of 
the opening and the longitudinal rib of the vault becoming one 
and the same member, while the supporting shaft of this arch 
became a member of the window jamb, as in the clerestory 
of Amiens (Fig. 66 and Plate III). In Amiens, too, another 
noticeable development occurs ; namely, the uniting of the 
clerestory and triforium into one grand composition by the 
prolongation of the longitudinal rib shafts and the shaft of 
the central mullion downward to the level of the triforium 
string. Each bay of the triforium is thus subdivided into two 
lesser bays (Plate III). 

In the developed Gothic style the triforium opening is of 
two main types. The first consists of a range of four shafted 
arches, as at Chartres, Soissons, and Reims ; while in the 
second we have three arches embraced by a great arch with 
a pierced tympanum, as at Paris ; and the same scheme is 
often doubled, as at Amiens. The single embracing arch 
usually occurs where the triforium is a vaulted gallery. 




AMIENS CATHEDRAL. 
Clerestory of Nave. 



v GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 161 

In France the triforium, when not a vaulted gallery, is a 
narrow passageway enclosed by a thin wall that shuts off 
from view the timber roof over the aisle vaulting, and gives 
a monumental aspect to this part of the structure that would 
be wanting were this timber roof exposed to view. 

We have now examined the leading structural develop- 
ments of French Gothic buildings, so far as concerns their 
longitudinal bays. It remains to examine corresponding de- 
velopments of the eastern and western terminations, the forms 
of transepts, and the forms and adjustments of towers and 
spires. The traditional semicircular apse, greatly enlarged, 
and, in the perfected style, changed to a polygonal plan, is 
the most characteristic eastern termination of the larger French 
churches. The square east end of Laon Cathedral is the result 
of an alteration made some time after the original completion 
of the edifice, and is exceptional among the larger Gothic 
edifices of France. In churches of smaller size, however, 
square east ends are numerous, and occur at all periods of 
Gothic art, as at Noel St. Martin, Marissel, Gournay, Bury, 
Gisors, St. Vincent of Senlis, Auvers, and many others. Yet 
the round, or polygonal, form remains the most common, and 
may be regarded as most truly characteristic. 

A more appropriate, or more beautiful, eastern termination 
than the Gothic apse could hardly be conceived. No part of 
the edifice does more honour to the Gothic builders. The low 
Romanesque apse, covered with the primitive semi-dome, and 
enclosed with its simple wall, presented no constructive diffi- 
culties, and produced no imposing effect. But the soaring 
French chevet, with its many-celled vault, its arcaded stories, 
its circling aisles, and its radial chapels, taxed the utmost 
inventive power and entranced the eye of the beholder. 

We have already (pp. 70, 73-74) traced partially the early 
development of the Gothic apse. We may now examine some 
further characteristics of its form in both early and later stages 
of advance. We saw (p. 74) that the apse of St. Germer is 
divided into five cells by ribs converging on the crown of the 
transverse rib of the first bay of the choir (Fig. 84). This adjust- 
ment of the ribs is the same that had been established in more 
primitive apses where, as in Berzy-le-Sec, described on p. 70. 

M 



[62 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 




the half-domed vault survives with the addition of salient ribs. 

But it is not a good adjustment, for the thrusts of these ribs are 

against the transverse rib 
at a point which is not 
strengthened by any abut- 
ting members. Where 
the transverse rib is very 
heavy, as in St. Germer 
and the small earlier 
churches to which ribbed 
apses are adjusted, the 
structure may be secure ; 
but with the lighter ribs 
of the more advanced 
monuments it is less so. 
And whether actually se- 

FIG. 84. -St. Germer-de-FIy. cure or not) this mode of 

adjustment is objectionable, because it does not afford visible 
evidence of stability. In 
the apse of Noyon, which 
is perhaps the next earliest 
Gothic apse on a large 
scale now extant, we have 
a different arrangement in 
which effective abutment 
is secured. Here, as in 
St. Germer, the vault is 
divided into five cells, by 
ribs converging on the 
transverse rib of the first 
bay of the choir, but they 
are met by two abutting 
ribs rising from the oppo- 
site direction. In order 
to effect this abutment 
the first rectangular vault 
of the choir is made tri- 
partite. That is, instead 
of the usual diagonal ribs FlG - 85- -Noyon. 

of such a vault, which would intersect in the centre of the 




GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



163 



compartment, oblique ribs are sprung from the western piers 
only, and are brought to bear on the crown of the eastern 
transverse rib (Fig. 85). A similar arrangement occurs in 
the Church of St. Leu d'Esserent and in the cathedrals of 
Auxerre and Rouen. 

The vast and majestic apse of the Cathedral of Paris followed 
soon after that of Noyon ; and it furnishes another type of 
structure in respect to the 
relationship between the 
vault of the apse and 
the vaulting of the choir. 
The apsidal vault of Paris 
is, like that of Noyon, in 
five cells, with its ribs in- 
tersecting in the same 
manner on the first trans- 
verse rib, and abutted as 
before by ribs in the ad- 
joining rectangular bay 
brought to bear against 
their thrusts. But in this 
case the arrangement is 
a natural one, which it is 
not in Noyon. For in 
Noyon the system of vault- 
ing in the choir is quad- 
ripartite, and hence the 
ribs of the vault adjoining 
the apse could not natu- 
rally furnish an abutment 
for those of the apse. In order to effect the abutment this 
vault had to be made tripartite — architectural uniformity being 
sacrificed, in a truly Gothic spirit, to constructive exigency. 
But in Paris (Fig. 86) the vaulting is sexpartite, and the plan is 
so arranged that the apsidal vault joins the half of a sexpartite 
compartment at the intermediate transverse rib. This half-vault 
is naturally tripartite, and so its ribs intersect at the point on 
which the apsidal ribs meet, and the needed abutment is secured. 
The same arrangement occurs at Sens and at Bourges ; and for 
a sexpartite system no better arrangement could be devised. 




[6 4 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



But for quadripartite vaulting, as at Noyon, this arrangement, 
though logical and effectual in point of construction, is not a 
good one, because it needlessly breaks up the uniformity of the 
choir vaults. The marked disparity which it occasions between 
the easternmost compartment of the vaulting and the other 
compartments was a defect which the builders were not slow to 
correct. A better adjustment of the apsidal ribs joining a 
quadripartite system was developed at Chartres (Fig. 87) and 
afterwards perfected at Amiens. It will be seen that at 
Noyon (Fig. 85) the plan of the apse is about semicircular, 




Fig. 87. — Chartres. 



so that the ribs of its vault are of equal length, being 
radii, and thus naturally meet on the crown of the transverse 
rib which is at the centre. At Paris (Fig. 86) the form 
of the apse is an arc of more than a half-circle, hence its 
centre is eastward of the crown of the transverse rib. Never- 
theless the apsidal ribs meet, as before, on that crown. In 
order to effect this they have to be lengthened, and are neces- 
sarily of unequal length. At Chartres the plan of the apse is a 
polygon set out on about a half-circle, and thus the crown of 
the transverse rib is near the centre of the curve ; but the apsi- 
dal ribs are not brought forward to this point, they are made to 
intersect on a point considerably eastward of the centre. This 
is done in order to allow place for two additional ribs which 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



"6 5 



spring from the piers that carry the transverse rib and, con- 
verging on the point where the other ribs meet, effectually meet 
their thrusts. By this means the stability of the vault of the 
apse is rendered independent of the vaulting of the choir. The 
awkward expedient of constructing a tripartite vault for the 
sake of abutment was thus no longer necessary ; and the vaulting 
of the choir could henceforth be uniformly quadripartite. The 
introduction of the two additional ribs gave the apsidal vault 
eight, instead of five, cells ; and the plan of the apse thus 




FIG. 88. — Amiens. 



became a polygon of seven sides. This was a great improve- 
ment, but a completely satisfactory form of apsidal vault was 
not yet reached. For the placing of the point of intersection 
backward of the centre still necessitated an awkward inequality 
in the lengths of the ribs. A final solution of the difficulties, in 
this part of apsidal vault construction, which had embarrassed 
the earlier builders was reached at Amiens. In the plan ( Fig. 88 ) 
of this great apse, the polygon is set out on an arc of more than 
a half-circle, and thus room is gained for the abutting ribs with- 
out removing the point of intersection from the centre. These 
ribs, and all the other ribs of the vault, are radii of the are ; and 



1 66 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

are hence of equal length, and the effect of the vault is har- 
monious. 

In elevation the bays of the apse are substantially like those 
of the nave and choir, except that they are narrower and, in 
early monuments, on a curved plan. The triforium and clere- 
story openings have usually fewer subdivisions than the wider 
ones of the straight part of the edifice. In early buildings, 
like Noyon and Senlis, they are often wholly undivided. 
Among the finest earlier Gothic apses is that of the Church of 
St. Remi of Reims, which dates from about 1170. 1 Below the 
clerestory it closely resembles the apse of Paris, its lower 
piers, its vaulting shafts, and the forms of its ground-story and 
triforium arcades (like Paris it has a vaulted triforium gallery) 
being almost identical in design. It is, perhaps, a little in 
advance of the apse of Paris in general lightness of construc- 
tion. As in the Cathedral of Noyon, there is a second tri- 
forium, and it is noticeable that this is united with the clere- 
story by shafts reaching through both. St. Remi thus presents 
an early instance of that treatment of clerestory and triforium 
which is carried out so grandly in the nave of Amiens. 2 The 
clerestory and the vaulted gallery have, in each bay, a group 
of three openings of which the central one is the largest; and 
this group fills the whole space between the piers. This type 
of opening occurs in a few other early Gothic buildings — as in 
the clerestory of the south transept of Soissons, and a simpler 
form of it, consisting of only two openings, in that of St.-Ger- 
main-des-Pres. It is not, however, a distinctly Gothic type on 
account of the necessary survival in the spandrels of portions 
of the clerestory wall. In fully developed Gothic buildings it 
is rarely, if ever, found. 

The apse of St. Remi affords another illustration of the 
fact that the Gothic style was but an evolution out of the 
Romanesque. Externally the plain rounded form and the gen- 
eral quietness of the design recall the older style, while the bold 
flying buttresses, and the enlarged openings, bespeak a struc- 
ture on Gothic principles. It also shows again that Gothic 
architecture developed from within — the internal changes 

1 Cf. Demaison, Les Architectes de la Cathedrale de Reims, p. 25. 

2 The same treatment occurs, also, in some other early monuments, as in the choir 
of St.-Germain-des-Pres of Paris. 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



167 



necessitating those of the exterior; and that the Gothic ex- 
pression is given to the exterior by the large structural features, 
while as yet no corresponding modification of lesser details 
takes place (Figs. 89 and 90). 



MUM H^MIKIIIS 




FIG. 89. — St. Remi, Reims. 



We have seen (pp. 62, 71) that the vaulting of the apsidal 
aisle presented difficulties which had embarrassed the early 
constructors. These difficulties, which grew out of the curved 
trapezoidal forms of the compartments to be vaulted, were at 



1 68 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



length, as we have also seen, wholly conquered in the apse of 
St. Denis. In addition to what has been thus far shown concern- 
ing such vaults, one or two further illustrations of the flexibility 
of the Gothic system may be given here. In the Cathedral of 
Paris the double aisles are continued around the apse, and the 
trapezoidal vault compartments of the inner and outer aisles 



fi 





Fig. go. — St. Remi, Reims. 

thus adjoin each other concentrically (Fig. 91). This gives a 
great length to the side A of the outer compartment which, on 
the usual method of vaulting such compartments, would have 
proved awkward to manage on account of the excessive height 
to which a single arch would reach. To avoid the necessity of 
such an arch, the architect of this apse adopted a novel and 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



169 



ingenious method whereby all of the arches of the curved sides 
of the vaulting are rendered of nearly equal span. This result 
is obtained by dividing the longest side of the inner compart- 
ment into two parts by the introduction of a pier B, and the 
longest side A of the outer compartment into three parts by 
the introduction of two supports at the points A'. No inter- 
secting diagonals are employed in the vault, but in place of 
them ribs are sprung from the piers C to the pier B ; and from 
the piers BB' to the piers A', thus dividing the inner compart- 
ment into three, and the outer compartment into five, triangular 




Fig. 91. — Paris, Vaults of Apsidal Aisle. 

cells of nearly equal magnitude. These cells are then vaulted 
over in the following manner : starting from the angle A' of the 
cell BA'B', arched courses of masonry are carried across from 
rib to rib until the crowns of these ribs are reached in the line 
D, then starting at the angles BB' similar courses are sprung, 
in a direction perpendicular to the first, from the rib BB' to the 
diagonals B'A', A'B', until the crowns of these diagonals are 
reached, after which they abut against the line D of the first 
system, and thus fill in the triangle. Every part of each cell is 
sensibly domical ; and the irregularities of surface, resulting 



170 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



from the conditions of the problem, have an agreeable effect 
upon the eye which no merely geometrical vaulting can 
produce. 1 

The difficulty arising from the great length of the outermost 
arches in double apsidal aisles was afterwards met in another 
way in the Cathedral of Le Mans. In this instance the 
trapezoidal form is avoided in the outer compartments by 
the adoption of a plan giving a series of radiating square vaults 
with the triangular intervals filled with vaults of triangular 
shape — after the manner of the vaulting of Aix-la-Chapelle be- 
fore noticed (p. 34). 

Apsidal chapels are almost always included in the plan of the 
Gothic apse. These are usually segmental or polygonal in plan, 
and vary considerably in development. In some cases, as at 
Senlis, St. Leu d'Esserent, and Soissons, they are but slightly 
pronounced, while in others, as at Noyon, Reims, Amiens, and 
Beauvais, they become of much importance. The chapels 
occupy the spaces between the buttresses, which, in the earlier 
monuments, as Noyon and Soissons, have considerable salience 
beyond them, while the chapels of the later cathedrals, as those 
of Reims, Amiens, and Beauvais, are so large that the buttresses 
are largely taken in as dividing walls. After the beginning of 
the thirteenth century the chapel on the axis of the building 
was frequently much enlarged and dedicated to the Virgin. It 
was often planned like a small nave without aisles, having two 
or more rectangular bays and an apse, as at Amiens. But in 
general the apsidal chapels are but diminutive apses of one 
story constructed on the principles of the larger apse. 

The combination of apse, apsidal aisle, and apsidal chapels 
is magnificent in the highest degree ; and is altogether peculiar 
to Gothic. The interior and exterior effects of the apse are 
among the most remarkable of any that Gothic art presents. 
Of the earlier interiors, which include all of the characteristic 
parts, hardly any are more admirable or more typical than that 
of the Church of St. Leu d'Esserent (Fig. 92), dating from the 
second half of the twelfth century. While those of Chartres, 
Reims, Amiens, and Beauvais, whether viewed from the interior 
or the exterior, are among the grandest achievements of human 
genius. 

1 Cf. Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Voute, p. 512. 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



171 



The plans of nearly all large French churches include tran- 
septs. Bourges, among cathedrals of the first magnitude, is 
exceptional in having none. In the Romanesque and in early 
Gothic churches the transept, though often largely developed, 




FIG. 92. — Apsidal Aisle of St. Leu d'Esserent. 

is generally near the east end. But in the developed Gothic 
style the choir is greatly extended in length, and the transept 
is thus brought forward toward the west end. The forms and 
arrangements of transepts are very various. In some large 
buildings, as in the Cathedral of Paris, the transept is of slight 
projection. In others, as in Noyon and Laon, it is more de- 



i 7 : 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



veloped. In some cases it is without aisles, as at Noyon and 
Paris. In others it has an aisle on both sides, as at Chartres, 
Amiens, and Reims. Again, as at Sens, we may find an eastern 
aisle, but no aisle on the west side. In some cases, as at Sens 
and Laon, chapels open out of the eastern aisle. The French 
transept usually terminates in a square end ; but in some early 
churches the extremities have the apsidal form. At Noyon 
both transept arms have round ends, while at Soissons one end 
is round and the other is square. The round ends of Noyon 
are without aisles, but the round end of Soissons has an aisle. 
The structural system of the transepts does not differ from that 
of the main body of the church, but consists of a shorter series 
of bays in all respects similar to those of the nave. The round 
end, when adopted, is formed by a continuation of the side 
bays, with their horizontal divisions, and internal and external 
members around the curve, as in the main apse. But the 
square transept end is furnished with an appropriate facade 
substantially like that of the principal front. The portals, and 
other external features of the transept, are not seldom so 
largely developed, and so richly adorned, as to almost equal, 
as at Paris, and sometimes even to surpass, as at Chartres, 
those of the main facade. The transepts of Chartres are 
provided with vast and unique porches, embracing triple por- 
tals, which are among the grandest architectural productions 
of the Middle Ages. 

Of the majestic aspect of the great west end of a Gothic 
cathedral in France too much in praise can hardly be said, and 
yet here we see little of those peculiar structural features which 
are so marked in the main body of the building. The great 
French facades are, in fact, not seldom criticised on the ground 
that they somewhat disguise the true character of the edifice 
which they enclose ; and it is, perhaps, true that an entirely 
satisfactory design for a western facade was hardly ever realized 
in a large Gothic church. Yet in Paris, Amiens, Reims, and 
other monuments we have west fronts of not merely great mag- 
nificence, but also, for the most part, of appropriate char- 
acter. The defects of these compositions have been exag- 
gerated, and have largely grown out of a mistaken notion 
respecting truthfulness in architectural design. It may be said 
in defence of them that it is not an imperative principle that a 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



173 



facade should wholly express the form of the building which it 
encloses. The facade rarely can do this except in buildings of 
a very simple character. But it may be affirmed as a principle 
that unnecessary or wilful concealment of structural forms is an 
architectural offence, and hence those horizontal arcades which 
connect the towers in some of the great Gothic fronts, masking 
the gabled roof behind them, may not seem wholly justifiable. It 
should be remembered, however, that the gabled timber cover- 
ing over a Gothic nave is not the true roof. The vault beneath 
it is the real roof of the monument ; and the form of the vault 
is not contradicted by the horizontal arcade. For a cross-sec- 
tion of the vaulting, taken through the centre of any bay, gives 
an approximately horizontal line with which the arcade suffi- 
ciently agrees. Moreover, the arcade itself has great value in 
its place between the towers — which are the governing features 
in any general view of the facade. To the eye this arcade has 
the function of binding the towers well together, and it forms a 
noble crowning feature to the central bay. As for the towers 
themselves, it would be hard to conceive more appropriate or 
effective terminations for the aisles of a great church edifice. 
And yet, from the front view, they quite conceal the whole of 
that wonderful system of flying buttresses which reveals so 
much of the distinctive character of Gothic art. It is, however, 
generally easy to get a view which commands the whole struc- 
tural system ; and in such a view we are impressed with the 
majesty and appropriateness of the mighty towered western 
front. In fact, criticise it as we may, it is hard to see what bet- 
ter could be done. Without the towers the front would be want- 
ing in that emphasis and dignity which befit a great monument 
of communal, as well as ecclesiastical, importance. 

In some instances, however, as at Eu (Seine-Inferieure), the 
towers are omitted; and in the facades of smaller churches they 
are generally wanting, as at Nesles, Auvers, Heronville, and 
Champagne (Fig. 93). In these cases a tower is placed over 
the crossing, as at Champagne, or beyond the aisle in front 
on either the north or the south sides, as at Chambly (Oise) and 
at Champeaux (Seine-et-Marne). In such facades the whole 
structural form of the building is expressed as fully as it can be. 

The practice of terminating by towers the western ex- 
tremities of the aisles of large churches was established in the 



74 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



Romanesque period. An interesting instance of an early 
Romanesque facade with such towers is afforded in the Abbaye- 
aux-Hommes at Caen (Fig. 94). The towers are here marked 
by vigorous pilaster buttresses of two orders, which rise without 
set-offs to the level of the horizontal cornice, above which they 
are carried up, without buttresses, three stories higher. 1 The 
facade is in three stories, marked, between the buttresses, by 




Fig. 93. — Champagne (Seine et Oise). 

plain string-courses. In the ground story three round-arched 
portals of moderate dimensions, each of three orders, open into 
the nave and aisles respectively. In the central bay three 
round-arched windows of two orders occur in each of the upper 
stories; and a single one of the same kind opens through the 
wall of each of the upper stories of each tower bay. A low 
gable over the central bay, with a diminutive arched opening in 



1 These towers are now crowned by Gothic spires of the thirteenth century. The 
original tower roofs must have been in the form of low square pyramids. 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



175 



its face, completes a design which, though well composed, is 
simple even to baldness. 

The development of the facade was less rapid than that of 
other parts of the building, and it was not until the end of the 
twelfth century that the Gothic impress was distinctly set upon it. 




FIG. 94. — Abbaye-aux-Hommes, Caen. 



The germs of the Gothic front are, however, plainly visible in the 
Church of St. Denis, where the larger dimensions of the deeply 
recessed portals, the presence of the pointed arch in some of the 
openings, the large wheel window, and the sculptured enrich- 
ments constitute a wide departure from Romanesque design. 



i 7 6 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



A further approach to the Gothic type is found in the 
facade of the Cathedral of Senlis (Fig. 95), which dates from the 
second half of the twelfth century. Although in its main ele- 
ments it is almost the same as the front of the Abbaye-aux- 




FlG. 95. —Senlis. 



Hommes, its features are richer, and it has a new expression 
which bespeaks the vigorous Gothic genius. Here similar 
square-edged tower buttresses of two orders divide the front 
into three bays. The central bay is divided into three stories 
by simply moulded string-courses, the upper one of which 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



177 



breaks around the towers and their buttresses. On the ground 
story the whole width of this bay is occupied by a splendid 
recessed portal of five orders with pointed arches. This is, per- 
haps, the earliest of those unparalleled portals which became 
such magnificent features of the developed French Gothic. 
Over this portal is a great pointed arched opening of four 
orders, which must, it would seem, originally have included 
some simple dividing members, but whose present shafts and 
tracery cannot belong to the original design. In the third story 
is a small circular opening of three orders, also filled with 
tracery of a later date, and on either side of it a pointed niche 
of two orders with a statue in each. A smaller pointed door- 





Fig. 96. — Senlis. 

way of four orders, with a stilted arch and a pierced tympanum 
of curious design, opens through the ground story of each 
lateral bay. The tympanums are in two planes — the inner 
one being solid; and the jointing of the masonry (Fig. 96) 
exhibits, in each, a curious and ingenious method of sup- 
porting the lintel. The opening next above the portal in 
the south tower bay is of two orders, with pointed arches, 
while the corresponding place in the north bay is occupied 
by a smaller window having a round arch. Above each of 
these openings the wall is embellished by an obtusely pointed 
blind arcade of two arches on slender shafts, and over these 
again, a small circular opening in each bay on the level of the 
circle of the central bay. One of these is now filled with a 
clock dial, and the other has tracery of a late pattern. The 



178 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

buttresses of the front of Senlis, unlike those of the Abbaye- 
aux-Hommes, are carried up the towers to the cornices of the 
first story above the roof of the nave. In each face of this 
story coupled pointed arched openings fill the entire space 
between the buttresses of each tower. The north tower ap- 
pears not to have been completed above this level ; but the 
tower. on the south side is surmounted by a spire of early thir- 
teenth-century design which is of unrivalled beauty. 

It will be observed, as we proceed, that, unlike the main 
body of the building, the Gothic facade is largely an ornamental 
modification and enrichment of the Romanesque facade, rather 
than a radical structural transformation. The facade with its 
towers is, for the most part, merely a storied edifice in which, 
as before remarked, the structural principles that are peculiar 
to Gothic are not extensively called into requisition. Never- 
theless, by the enlargement of the openings, the slenderness 
of the supports and dividing members, the general emphasis 
of the skeleton, and the upward impulse of its main lines, it 
ultimately attained a distinctive expression in harmony with 
that of the rest of the fabric. 

A great advance in the development of the Gothic facade 
was made in the Cathedral of Paris (Plate IV). This vast and 
superb design is not only the most elaborate that had been 
produced up to its time, but, in point of architectural grandeur, 
it has hardly ever been equalled. The general scheme is still 
the same as that of the Abbaye-aux-Hommes, but the com- 
ponent elements are treated in such a way as to manifest the 
Gothic spirit in every part. The larger divisions are grandly 
proportioned and beautifully subdivided, and the Romanesque 
characteristics have completely disappeared from the apertures, 
the arcades, and even from the moulding profiles. Three 
majestic portals on the ground story ; a magnificent arcade, 
sheltering twenty-eight colossal statues, and reaching across 
the entire front, over them ; a vast wheel, with open tracery, 
in the central upper compartment, with twin pointed openings 
and a small circle, embraced by a great pointed arch, in each 
lateral bay ; an elegant, though gigantic, open arcade carrying 
the main cornice, together with the towers above, each pierced 
with coupled pointed openings, — make up a most impressive 
architectural composition. This noble creation of the early 



Plate IV 




PARIS CATHEDRAL. 
Facade begun in 1205. 



Plate V 




AMIENS. 
Thirteenth Century 



v GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 179 

thirteenth century has suffered much from the vandalism of 
modern times. Many of its details have been destroyed and 
replaced by new ones ; but its leading features are still essen- 
tially unchanged. 

The still richer fagade of Amiens (Plate V) has been much 
injured by remodelling in its upper parts. But the lower por- 
tions retain their primitive forms. While the general scheme 
of this design is substantially like that of Paris, it exhibits 
a different treatment of details, and some novel features are 
introduced. The most important of these last are the porches, 
which are obtained by increasing the salience of the buttresses on 
the ground-story level, the outermost archivolts of the portals being 
brought forward so as to be flush with their outer faces, and 
gabled roofs being erected over them. 1 Many varieties of purely 
ornamental gables, often of exaggerated development, arose in 
later cathedral fronts ; but here in Amiens they are simple, 
appropriate, and monumental. Other new features are the 
pinnacles which crown the deep offsets of the buttresses, and 
these buttresses are now further enriched with superimposed 
arcadings, panellings, statues, and sculptured reliefs. Between 
the great portals and the arcade of statues an elaborate open 
gallery is interposed, and the great wheel of the central bay is 
flanked by coupled pointed openings in the tower bays. This 
wheel has lost its original tracery, and the existing tracery, of 
Flamboyant design, does not harmonize with the nobler forms 
of the earlier composition. The top stories of the towers have 
lost most of their primitive features by Flamboyant alterations, 
and the arcade which now connects them is wholly Flamboyant. 
The facade of Amiens is thus sadly disfigured, so that its original 
aspect as a whole cannot be fully understood. Yet enough re- 
mains to show that this marvellous west front must have marked 
the culmination of Gothic art in its purest condition. 

In the stupendous west end of Bourges we have porches of 
the same general character as those of Amiens. In fact, they 



1 These gables, thus introduced as protecting roofs over the arches, were seen to 
have an architectural value, and were soon brought into extensive use for ornamental 
effect where they had no structural meaning — as in the interior arcades of the tri- 
foriutn of the choir of this same cathedral. This purely ornamental use of the gable 
surmounting the arch does not, I believe, often occur before about the middle of 
the thirteenth century. 



180 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

are, perhaps, even finer in point of monumental simplicity joined 
with elegance of form. The elaborate cuspings of the archi- 
volts and crocketing of the gables of the porches of Amiens 
produce a slightly florid effect. But at Bourges these orna- 
ments are altogether omitted from the central porch, and only 
crockets of very moderate development are used in the lateral 
ones. Bourges has a five-aisled interior, and the internal divi- 
sions are marked on the outside by buttresses of unusual 
prominence. There are thus five porches here, instead of only 
three, as at Amiens — where there are only three aisles. It 
may be remarked here that the Cathedral of Paris, also, has five 
aisles ; but this is not expressed in its fagade. 

It is hard to speak critically of so majestic a structure as the 
west front of the Cathedral of Reims. The period of its con- 
struction was, however, one when the vitality and spontaneity 
of the Gothic movement were in great measure spent ; and the 
signs of waning life are not wanting in this monument. It has 
merits, however, which almost entitle it to rank among the first 
of Gothic facades. In the magnitude of its openings, the at- 
tenuation of their dividing members, and the general emphasis of 
its upright lines, it has a more pronounced Gothic expression 
than any other monument of the thirteenth century, and yet its 
defects are conspicuous. Among the most marked of these is 
the projection of the jambs of the great portals beyond the 
faces of the buttresses, so that the adjoining splays meet in 
narrow edges. The buttress is thus lost to view in the ground 
story, where it ought to be a prominent feature. An approach 
to the same treatment occurs at Bourges, where the outer faces 
of the buttresses are somewhat narrowed, though not entirely 
covered, by the splays. A still further departure from the 
principles of the purest Gothic is seen in the treatment of the 
great ground-story gables. These gables do not follow the lines 
of the roofs of the portals to which they belong, but rise far 
above them as purely ornamental features, and thus violate the 
logic of the Gothic system in its integrity. The pinnacles over 
the offsets of the buttresses are of greatly magnified dimensions, 
and are raised on shafted canopies sheltering colossal statues. 
These are beautiful features in themselves, but the florid aspect 
of the whole design to which they largely contribute is some- 
what excessive. The great western window wheel is set beneath 



v GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 181 

a pointed arch which is one with the westernmost transverse 
rib of the nave vaulting. The effect of this is not altogether 
happy. In earlier monuments, in Paris and Amiens for example, 
the westernmost transverse rib is made semicircular so as to 
form the upper half of the circumference of the opening. A 
better treatment, where the westernmost transverse rib has 
the pointed form, is shown at Bourges. In this case the cir- 
cular wheel is omitted altogether, and a vast pointed arched 
opening with mullions takes its place. The wheel, however, is 
a magnificent feature, and much grander in effect than the 
gigantic pointed opening. Its great circle contrasts most 
effectively with the lines of the general framework of the 
facade ; and the elaborate geometric patterns of its tracery are 
among the most charming features of Gothic art. Viewed as a 
whole the west front of Reims has a remarkably soaring aspect. 
This is secured not only by great height in proportion to width, 
and by a multiplication of slender upright members, but also by 
a general breaking up of the horizontal courses, so that no con- 
tinuous level lines extend across the entire front ; and the effect 
is heightened by an acute gable over the top arcade of the cen- 
tral bay, as well as by the addition of immensely tall open 
canopies, on slender supports, in place of solid buttresses, at 
the angles of the upper stories of the towers. 

The west fronts of Senlis, Paris, Amiens, and Reims suffi- 
ciently illustrate the development and the characteristics of the 
French Gothic western facade. Its typical form, as exhibited 
in the Cathedral of Amiens, is a marvel of architectural gran- 
deur and beauty. With the given conditions it is hard to see 
how a more successful result could have been reached. The 
arch, the shaft, the buttress, and the string are employed with 
the finest artistic judgment. The main masses are disposed and 
proportioned with subtle feeling, and the myriads of ornamental 
details are distributed with a sense of largeness and breadth 
of total effect, no less than of delicacy in minute elaboration. 
The men who designed and executed these facades were great 
artists ; and their work bespeaks an aesthetic culture comparable 
with that manifest in the finest art of Greece. If this is still 
largely unrecognized, it is due, in great measure, to the fact 
that our modern ideas have been formed under the influence 
of aesthetic guides who, in over-zealous and unenlightened 



1 82 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

regard for classic, and Neo-classic, art, have failed to appre- 
ciate the real character of the arts of the Middle Ages. 

I have said that in the western facade there was little 
occasion for peculiar structural developments. It ought not, 
however, to be supposed that such developments were alto- 
gether wanting in this part of the Gothic edifice. M. Viollet- 
le-Duc has shown, 1 for instance, that in the great buttresses, 
like those of the Cathedral of Paris, the tendency to settlement 
is greater at the inner part, which is more heavily weighted, 
than the outer face. This inequality of settlement would 
be apt to cause more or less rupture in the mass were not 
means taken to relieve the inner side, and to distribute the 
weight equally. In the colossal buttresses of Paris a series 
of props of cut stone are shown to be embedded in the rough 
rubble masonry of which the inner masses are mainly made up. 
These conduct the weight at intervals from the inner portions 
to the outer. To secure the outer faces of the buttresses 
against yielding to the outward thrusts of these props, bond 
courses of cut stone are inserted and firmly held together by 
cramps of iron. The buttress thus built becomes an organic 
structure partaking of those principles which reign throughout 
the rest of the building. 

Of external features none is more striking, and, after the 
flying buttress, none shows more of the Gothic spirit, than the 
stone spire with which, in the original design, if not in the com- 
pleted work, the tower was crowned. The spire is, moreover, 
a feature which, perhaps, beyond any other marks the communal 
spirit and influence. It formed the governing feature in and 
general view of the mediaeval town ; and was a sign of municipal 
power and prosperity. It was natural, therefore, that the spire 
should call forth the special enthusiasm and effort of the lay 
builders. 

Before the twelfth century nothing like a true spire had 
been built. In France during the eleventh century the form 
of the tower roof, when of stone, was that of a low square pyra- 
mid, like those still extant on the towers which flank the apse 
of the Abbey Church of Morienval (Fig. 97), and date from 

1 S.v. Construction, p. 158 et seq. 






GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



183 



about the middle of the eleventh century. In Normandy more 
acutely pointed pyramids occur, dating from an early period ; 
but they are still on a square base, as at St. Contest (Calvados), 
where a small round-arched dormer, surmounted by a gable, 
breaks each side near the base (Fig. 98). In the Ile-de- 
France, however, the true spire, which is octagonal in form, 
surmounts the square tower early in 
the twelfth century, as in the small 
churches of St. Vaast de Longmont, 
Chamant (near Senlis), St. Leu d'Es- 
serent, and others. Of these Chamant 
(Fig. 99), if it be in reality as early 
as it appears, is especially interesting 
because it exhibits features which 
were afterwards magnificently ampli- 
fied in the unique spire of the Cathe- 
dral of Senlis. These features are: 
acutely gabled dormers with pierced 
tympanums, one on each of the four 
faces of the octagon that are even 
with the tower walls, and small 
openings above in each of the eight 
faces. Few, if any, spires of earlier 
date than these had been constructed; 
and from such simple types the 
progress was surprisingly rapid. 
Innovations, which were generally 
improvements, quickly followed each 
other until the typical Gothic spire 
was produced. There were difficul- 
ties, too, of no small magnitude to 
be overcome. To manage the tran- 
sition from the square plan of the tower to the octagonal plan 
of the spire, so as to secure both stability and beauty, was not 
an easy task at a time when there were no precedents to guide 
the constructors. Thus these early spires, when regarded as 
experiments in untried forms of design and construction, may 
well call forth our admiration ; though when compared with 
subsequent achievements, we recognize the points in which 
they fail. 




Fig. 97. — Morienval. 



1 84 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



The adjustment in Chamant of the octagon to the square 
is but partially successful as an architectural design. The 
transition is too abrupt. The upper story of the tower is not 
well prepared to carry a spire ; there is a lack of organic con- 
nection between the two parts. 

Great improvements were made in the tower and spire of 
the Abbey Church of the Trinity at Vendome (Loir-et-Cher). 
The angle buttresses are here carried 
up to the cornice of the belfry story 
with which the square tower ter- 
minates, and between this and the 
spire a tall vertical octagon story is 
interposed. Open circular turrets 
with pointed conical roofs cover 
the angles of the square belfry, 
and a pointed opening of two 
shafted orders surmounted with a 
gable adorns each cardinal face of 
the vertical octagon. This octagon 
is crowned with a bracketed cornice 
from which the spire rises without 
any subordinate structural or orna- 
mental features. The tall polygonal 
drum and its engaged turrets form 
an elegant and aspiring group, but 
the junction of the spire with the 
octagon is not as well managed as 
it might be. The unbroken level 
line of this junction is not in harmony 
that was seeking expression. Still 
greater improvements were, however, very soon made, and 
the typical Gothic spire was brought into existence at one 
further stride, in the Cathedral of Chartres. The south tower 
and spire of this monument (Fig. ioo) were constructed between 
1 140 and 1 160. In this case the polygonal drum has a square 
turret, with a shafted opening in front and a steep pyramidal 
roof, set over each of the tower angles against each oblique face 
of the drum. These turrets, rising directly over the buttresses 
of the substructure, continue their vertical lines and thus hap- 
pily unite the drum with the tower. A pointed arched opening 




Fig. 98. — St. Co: 

with the soaring 



spirit 



Plate VI. 




SPIRE OF SENLIS. 
Middle of thirteenth Century. 



GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



185 



in each cardinal face of the drum is surmounted by a high and 

steep gable, which rises through the drum cornice and abuts 

against the base of the spire. The apexes of the pyramids of 

the angle turrets likewise rise above the cornice of the drum, 

and thus the level line, which is so 

marked in Vendome, is broken up, and 

the composition as a whole has an organic 

and aspiring expression. As in the spire 

of Vendome, coursed three-quarter rounds 

adorn the angles, and a similar moulding 

is carried up the middle of each face. 

The spire of Chartres has a monumental 

nobility and purity of style that are hardly 

equalled in any other Gothic spire of the 

twelfth century. 

The small Church of Vernouillet 
(Seine-et-Oise) has over the crossing a 
spire of great beauty, dating apparently 
from the latter part of the twelfth cen- 
tury. In this composition the octagonal 
drum is omitted, 1 but the development of 
the pinnacles and gabled dormers, and 
the manner of their grouping in relation 
to the main body of the spire, indicate 
advanced powers of design. Elegant 
open shafted canopies of square plan 
here support the pinnacles of the tower 
angles, and are set even with the tower 
walls, while shafted dormers, with steep 
gables, rise against the cardinal faces of 
the spire. The lines are all well carried 
up — those of the tower buttresses being 
continued by the shafts of the pinnacles ; 
while the inclined lines of the crowning members lead the eye 
in the direction of the spire itself, which rises through the sub- 
ordinate group with admirable effect. 

The spire of the Cathedral of Senlis (Plate VI), erected early 




Fig. 99. — Cbamant. 



1 Though the octagonal drum is omitted from the design of the exterior of the 
spire of Vernouillet, it nevertheless exists inside, as shown by Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. 
Clocher, p. 327. 



i86 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



in the thirteenth century, marks the culmination of pure Gothic 
art in this feature. In point of organic design it possesses 
all of the merits of the spires of 
Chartres and Vernouillet, while for 
grace of outline, soaring expression, 
and beauty of details it is unequalled 
by any other spire of the Middle Ages. 
In this case the octagonal drum is 
much taller than at Chartres, as are 
the proportions of all other parts of 
the structure. The pinnacles over the 
angle buttresses are here, as at Ver- 
nouillet, set even with the tower walls, 
and consist of three slender shafts 
which reach to about one-half the 
height of the drum, and carry pointed 
arches surmounted by acute skeleton 
pyramids richly crocketed. The axes 
of these pyramids are not vertical, but 
are inclined inwards against the oblique 
faces of the octagon. Their outlines 
thus lead the eye up to the inclined 
lines of the spire, and their apexes 
rise above the drum cornice high 
enough to break up its horizontal line. 
A tall, pointed, arched opening pierces 
each cardinal face of the drum, and a 
dormer of slender proportions, with an 
acute pierced gable and rich, though 
not over-elaborate, design, is set against 
each face of the spire,which is pierced 
on each side, above the dormers, with 
two narrow rectangular openings and 
a circle between them. Slender engaged 
shafts rise against the angles of the 
drum, and crockets adorn the angles 
of the spire. 

In these spires the oblique walls of the octagon are sus- 
tained by squinches in the reentrant angles of the tower ; and 
these, with the loads they carry, help to consolidate the fabric, 




Fig. ioo. — Chartres. 



v GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 187 

while the thrusts of the spire are further reduced to a minimum 
by thinness of masonry, and by the weight of the abutting 
dormers. 

We may now briefly consider the general interior and ex- 
terior aspects of the Gothic edifice. Standing at the west end 
of the nave and looking eastward, the interior of a great cathe- 
dral presents a most impressive spectacle. The effect is, in- 
deed, almost overwhelming. The vast vista with its stately 
piers and lofty vaults, the rhythmical order of the larger subdi- 
visions, the multitudinous array of subordinate members ranged 
in sequent ranks, and losing themselves in the mysterious per- 
spective of the choir — the view ending in the majestic apse 
seen dimly through the misty, incense-laden air, produce upon 
the receptive mind sensations that are awakened only by the 
noblest works of the creative imagination. 

In any general view of the exterior the structural system is 
everywhere plainly expressed. We see at a glance that the 
building is not composed of walls and timber roofs, but that it 
consists of vaulting sustained by piers and buttresses. So 
marked is the expression of this peculiar mode of construction 
that M. Renan has likened the Gothic edifice to an animal with 
its charpente ossense autour de ltd. 1 In the frank exhibition of 
each functional member, and the artistic skill with which all are 
shaped and adjusted with regard to their effect in the mighty 
whole, reside largely the peculiar impressiveness of the Gothic 
cathedral. 

The general proportions of the exterior are sometimes thought 
to be unsatisfactory. But the fact is overlooked that hardly any 
of these mediaeval churches were completed according to the 
original design, and that not one of them has come down to 
us without having undergone considerable, and more or less 
damaging, alterations. Those which were most nearly com- 
pleted at one epoch, and have suffered least from alterations, are 
remarkable for grandeur and for justness and harmony of pro- 
portions. Among these two may here be taken as illustrations 
— one an early structure, and the other a later one. The first 



1 Le Gere and Renan, " Discours sur l'Etat des Beaux-Arts," in the Hist. Littl- 
raire de la France an Quatorzieme Steele, Paris, 1865, p. 230. 



188 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

is the Abbey Church of St. Leu d'Esserent (Plate VII), and the 
second the Cathedral of Reims (Plate VIII): Both exhibit parts 
belonging to different periods of construction ; but these parts 
are all of admirable character, and they group together very 
harmoniously. In St. Leu the apse, the apsidal chapels, and 
the eastern towers, together with the first adjoining bay of the 
nave, date from about 1170; 1 while the main body of the nave 
appears to have been constructed a few years later, and the 
western tower, with its spire, is a remnant of an earlier edifice. 
With exception of the western tower, to which the reconstructed 
nave is ill adjusted, the total composition as it now stands is 
conspicuously fine in outline and just in its proportions. It 
is, in fact, one of the best and completest surviving monu- 
ments of the Gothic art of the twelfth century. 

In the general exterior view Reims presents a striking con- 
sistency and harmony of parts, and as a whole it is equalled by 
few other French cathedrals, notwithstanding that it comprises 
parts that were wrought at successive periods extending from 
12 12 to the fourteenth century. The earlier and later portions 
are, however, so inconsiderable in extent as to have little effect 
in the general side view. The main body of this vast structure 
was built during the thirteenth century ; the greater part of 
what is visible in the illustration being subsequent in date to 
the year 1240 — the period when the work was resumed after 
a delay that followed the construction of the lower parts of the 
east end, where the monument was begun. 

A noticeable feature of this exterior is the elaborate and gigan- 
tic parapet with which its cornices are crowned. This feature 
appears to have been developed early in the thirteenth century. 
In the Gothic of the twelfth century it hardly ever appears. The 
naves of Noyon, 2 Laon, St. Leu d'Esserent, and other kindred 
monuments are crowned with simple cornices only. In Paris, 
Soissons, and Chartres simple parapets occur, and in Amiens 
and Beauvais they are more developed. But this parapet of 
Reims surpasses in magnitude and richness that of any other 
Gothic building. It is, in fact, over-developed, and like many 

1 The work is so closely similar in character to that of the eastern portions of 
Senlis as to warrant the belief that it is nearly contemporaneous; while the style of 
the superb capitals of the interior seems to show that they must have been wrought 
subsequently to those of the choir of Paris, which date from 1 163. 

2 The existing parapet of Noyon is an addition of modern times. 



v GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 189 

other features of this cathedral, manifests a spirit of lavish orna- 
mental display which was one of the influences that led to the 
decline of Gothic art. 1 

These two monuments, St. Leu and Reims, afford an interest- 
ing comparison, the one showing the unadorned condition of the 
external features which is characteristic of the time when struc- 
tural exigencies were first being successfully met, and the other 
showing the richness of the full Gothic development when the 
edifice stands forth clothed in a vast wealth of appropriate en- 
richments. Each condition has its own proper charm ; but it 
may be questioned whether the monumental simplicity of the 
earlier building has not some superior merits : Reims, though 
magnificent, is somewhat redundant. The Gothic exterior, in 
its utmost purity, would partake more of the character of St. 
Leu. The nave of Amiens, in its original integrity, would 
illustrate more justly this condition. 

We have now examined enough of these structural forms 
and adjustments to enable us to understand the Gothic system 
and the animating principles which controlled the French build- 
ers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Gothic art was a 
result of an unparalleled impulse which had its source in the 
social improvements of the eleventh century, as well as in the 
peculiar French genius. These improvements gave scope to 
inventive spirit, and supplied material resources. Architectural 
activity was incessant. The number of churches erected in the 
Ile-de-France during the first half of the twelfth century is 
astonishing. In no other part of the world was there anything 
like it. 2 And this activity continued, and gathered force, for at 
least three-quarters of a century after 11 50. 

1 In connection with the parapet the gargoyle may be mentioned as a feature 
that makes its appearance in the thirteenth century. Both parapet and gargoyle arose 
in connection with the canal for the accumulation and discharge of rain-water. For- 
merly, as in St. Leu d'Esserent, the tiling of the roof overhung the cornice and dis- 
charged water all along its length. But by means of the canal with its gargoyles the 
water was discharged at intervals and thrown far out beyond the sides of the build- 
ing. The canal became also a convenient passageway, by means of which various 
parts of the exterior could be easily reached. The passageway called for the protect- 
ing parapet. Cf. Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Balustrade. 

2 A glance at the Carte des Monuments Historiques de France, indiquant les 
£coles tPArt du Territoire' Francais pendant la premiere Moitie du XII* Steele, pub- 
lished by the French government, shows this region thickly studded with churches; 
while in the neighbouring provinces they were more sparsely scattered. 



I go GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap, v 

The buildings which we have considered, though among the 
most important, are by no means the only ones in France which 
exhibit the growth and character of Gothic art. There are 
many others of the same character, and few, if any, of a dif- 
ferent kind. The Gothic movement was general throughout the 
region where it arose. It was a remarkably spontaneous and 
national movement — all of the elements of the new style being 
creative developments out of older principles and forms. There 
was no mere imitation, there was nothing of the kind else- 
where to imitate. After the beginning of the twelfth century 
every traditional architectural member that could be utilized was 
subjected to a process of organic recreation, and adjusted to 
its place in the Gothic system. 

As we have seen, structural and artistic principles find simul- 
taneous expressions in every step of the progress of this art. 
Mechanical invention and aesthetic feeling were never separated 
in the minds of the French builders. They were true artists, 
and wrought with a steady regard for beauty. I would again 
emphasize this, lest from our lengthened examination of its 
structural growth it should be, in any degree, inferred that 
Gothic architecture was such a growth merely. The Gothic 
monument, though wonderful as a structural organism, is even 
more wonderful as a work of art. 

We have followed the development of French Gothic from 
its inception to its maturity. We have found its distinctive 
character first taking form in the apsidal vaults of Morienval 
advanced in St. Germer and St. Denis, and further perfected in 
Noyon and Senlis. We have found every functional member 
complete in form and adjustment in the Cathedral of Paris ; 
though much that is unessential to the new system still clings to 
it. We have next seen the lingering remains of Romanesque art 
gradually diminished, and the Gothic spirit more independently 
expressed, in the early portions of Reims, and in the remodelled 
portions of Paris ; while, finally, in the nave of Amiens, we have 
beheld the transformation wholly accomplished, and the Gothic 
style standing forth in its perfected majesty and splendour. 

In France, then, Gothic architecture was germinating by 
the beginning of the twelfth century, had accomplished its 
structural transition in the third quarter of the century, and had 
reached its fullest perfection by 1220. 



CHAPTER VI 

POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 

Few instances of organic vaulted architecture, including the 
employment of groin ribs and the structural use of the pointed 
arch, occur in England prior to the rebuilding of Canterbury 
Cathedral by a French architect — which was begun in the 
year 1 1 75. One instance of pointed vaulting on ribs oc- 
curs, however, in the aisles of Malmesbury Abbey, a build- 
ing which is nearly contemporaneous with the Church of St. 
Denis in France. From this it has been maintained 1 that 
a transitional movement had arisen in England as early as in 
France, and that this building affords evidence of a native pro- 
gressive spirit in architecture equal to that which was active on 
the Continent. But the character of the monument as compared 
with contemporaneous and preceding continental works does 
not bear out this view. For although Malmesbury has some 
important transitional features, in organic development it is very 
far behind contemporaneous continental works, and we now know 
that the Gothic movement arose in France long before this time 
— its early progress there being traceable, as we have found, in 
many extant monuments which antedate the Church of St. Denis. 
It will be seen (Fig. 101) that the Malmesbury vaults have a 
slightly domical form, and are furnished with transverse and 
groin ribs, but no longitudinal ribs. The pier arches and the 
transverse arches are pointed, while the groin arches are semi- 
circular. The profiling is primitive, — the transverse ribs being 
square in section, while the diagonals are three-quarter rounds. 
It is evident that the nave was originally designed for vaulting, 
since a group of three vaulting shafts is incorporated with each 
pier. These shafts seem clearly to belong to the original con- 
struction, as may be seen (Fig. 102) by their perfect adjustment 
with the imposts of the great arcade, from which they rise, and 

1 By J. H. Parker and others. 
191 



192 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



by their being banded by the original triforium string. But 
if vaulting to correspond with these shafts was ever carried out, 
it was afterwards destroyed. The existing vaults of the nave 
are of late English construction, and of a character that does 
not harmonize with the earlier parts of the building. The 
heavy Norman triforium has a feature that is uncommon in 
England, though it is constant in the French Gothic ; namely, a 
wall within the arcade screening off the space over the aisle 




FIG. ioi. — Vault of Aisle, Malmesbury Abbey. 

vaulting. In the pointed architecture of England the triforium 
is usually open, exposing to view the timber roof of the aisle. 1 

With such approach to transitional Gothic character as it 
has, Malmesbury Abbey is, in England, an isolated work of its 
kind. No earlier buildings seem to have led up to it, and no 
further developments grew out of it. It is not, therefore, like 
St. Denis of France, a link in a continuous chain of structural 
progress. It is apparently a partial imitation by the Norman 
builders of the new mode of vaulting that was developing in 
France. The Norman elements remain largely unchanged — 
even in the interior system — which is not organically fashioned 



See p. 208. 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 



193 



throughout. Let us give its Anglo-Norman builders all the 
credit that is due for an early attempt to follow in the path that 
had been opened across the channel ; but we cannot fail to see 
that they were not really imbued with the spirit, and governed 
by the principles, that were transforming the architecture of 
the Ile-de-France. 




Fig. 102. — System of Malmesbury Abbey. 



The buildings which immediately follow Malmesbury show, 
in the manner of their construction, less, rather than more, of 
transitional character. The early abbey churches erected soon 
after the middle of the twelfth century hardly depart in any 
essential manner from the older Norman modes of building. 
The pointed arch occurs, indeed, in most of them, but it is with- 
out structural necessity in vaulting, and without architectural 
o 



194 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



consequence in the general system. The vaulting that occurs 
in these churches is often of the most primitive kind. The 
aisles of Fountains Abbey, for instance (Fig. 103), which date 
from about 1 1 50, are covered with a series of pointed barrel 
vaults carried on heavy transverse round arches — as in the 
nave of St. Philibert of Tournus (described on p. 41). These 
transverse arches (which spring from a lower level than the 




Fig. 103. — Fountains Abbey. 



great archivolts) rest on corbels let into the piers and the aisle 
wall respectively. The piers themselves are bulky round col- 
umns of masonry, each having two engaged shafts on the aisle 
side. These shafts have no connection with the vaulting, but 
merely support the corners of the great abaci — which are square 
on the aisle side, while they are polygonal on the side of the 
nave in conformity with the shape of the impost section. Fig- 
ure 104, a plan of the abacus laid over a section of the pier, will 
explain the arrangement. The nave of Fountains was neither 



VI POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 195 

vaulted nor intended for vaulting. Its massive walls, carried 
on pointed pier arches, are unbroken by structural members, 
and there is no approach to Gothic character in any part. 

The aisles of Kirkstall Abbey, which belong to about the 
same epoch as Fountains, have groined vaults on pointed arches 
with transverse and diagonal ribs. The piers are composed of 
small round members grouped about a circular core, and are 
crowned each with an octagonal capital. These small members 
have no strict relationship either to the aisle vaulting, or to the 
great arch orders. As in Fountains, there are no responds 
against the aisle wall — the vaulting here being supported on 
corbels. No nave vaults are provided 
for, and the design above the pier 
arches is substantially the same as that 
of Fountains. It will be seen (Fig. 
105) that the organic pier of Roman- 
esque and Gothic art does not exist 
in Kirkstall any more than in Foun- 
tains. In both of these buildings it is 
merely a ground-story support, and 
has no organic composition what- 
ever. 

It may be remarked in passing that the masonry of vaulting 
in England, not only at this time, but also during the whole 
period of pointed design, is usually different from that of France; 
and is often, as here at Kirkstall, composed of broken flatfish 
stones, of irregular sizes, wedged together as in primitive Nor- 
man vaulting — the surfaces of the vaults being finished with a 
coating of plaster. Light vault shells, of well-faced and finely 
jointed stones like those of the French Gothic, though often 
found in the larger English cathedrals of the thirteenth century, 
are rare before that time. 

Many other instances of the use of the pointed arch, with 
and without vaulting, may be found in the Anglo-Norman archi- 
tecture of about the middle of the twelfth century; but they 
are generally devoid of constructive significance.. Thus far in 
England, though the cathedrals of Senlis and Noyon were now 
in process of building across the channel, nothing of a more 
advanced character occurs. But, on the contrary, such impor- 
tant works as the naves of Peterborough and Ely, and many 




196 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



other large churches, were still constructed in the unmodified 
Norman style. 

No important structural modification of an entire system 
appears to have been made in England till William of Sens 
began that rebuilding of the choir of Canterbury to which I 
have already referred. And even this building, though a very 
beautiful one, is not so fully Gothic 
as the choir of the Cathedral of Paris, 
which had been begun more than a 
decade earlier. But the choir of 
Canterbury (Fig. 106) was the real 
beginning of what Gothic there is in 
the pointed architecture of England. 
From it, as the main source, is derived, 
in so far as structural elements are 
concerned, what is known as the early 
English style. This choir has five 
bays, and is vaulted with one quadri- 
partite and two sexpartite compart- 
ments. These vaults are constructed 
on a full system of ribs, of which 
those of the transverse arches only 
are pointed. The longitudinal rib is 
much stilted, the surfaces are domical, 
and the resulting forms give the work 
a substantially transitional Gothic 
character. The larger ribs are carried 
on slender monolithic shafts, which 
rest on the capitals of the ground- 
story piers, which are, alternately, 
round and octagonal columns. The 
longitudinal ribs rest on small shafts 
rising from the clerestory ledge. Thus 
there are only three shafts in the 
main pier groups, and only one in the intermediate pier. This 
arrangement, which rarely occurs in the Gothic of France, 
is found (as we have seen, p. 119) in the Cathedral of Sens 
— the architect's native town. We shall presently see that the 
single vaulting shaft, here used logically to support the single 
intermediate transverse rib, became frequent in the pointed 




Fig. 105. 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 



197 



architecture of England, but that it is often made to carry 
all the ribs in quadripartite vaulting. The great pier arches 
are pointed and of two orders profiled like contemporaneous 




FlG. 106. — Choir of Canterbury. 

French archivolts, the triforium has both round and pointed 
arches of two orders (also with French profiles) on monolithic 
shafts, and the clerestory has a passageway in the thickness of 



198 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

the wall which gives two planes of masonry — the inner one of 
which is pierced with an opening which occupies almost the 
entire width of the bay, and is spanned by the longitudinal 
vault rib ; while the outer one has a smaller opening with a 
pointed arch. The thrusts of the vaulting are met by an arch 
against each pier across the triforium, and by a flying buttress 
over the aisle roof. 1 

Though the system of this choir is somewhat less advanced 
than those of the contemporaneous Gothic works in France, it 
is nevertheless a distinctly transitional structure, and one of 
great beauty. It is, however, wholly an importation from the 
Continent, and in no sense a native product. 2 Its novelty and 
beauty made a deep impression, and very naturally excited em- 
ulation. The lesson which it taught soon bore fruit in some 
of the important churches that arose in England during the 
last decades of the twelfth century. Among these were the 
more easterly portions of the same cathedral, the reconstructed 
portions of Chichester, and the choir and eastern transept of 
Lincoln. 

After the completion by William of Sens of the choir and 
some portion of the more eastern parts of Canterbury, the 
master, having received injuries in a fall from the scaffolding, 
relinquished the work and returned to France. He was suc- 
ceeded by another William, said to have been an Englishman. 
It is difficult to distinguish with precision the beginning of the 
work of the second William. 3 There is, however, not much of im- 
portance in the larger features of any part of the building that 
can be called his own design. He apparently did little more 
than to carry out the original scheme of William of Sens; for 
the work is still mainly French in character. The coupled 
columns of the ground story of the Trinity Chapel, or so-called 
Corona, at the eastern end of the church, are like those of the 
Cathedral of Sens, and the vaulting and vaulting system are 
substantially the same as before. The apse is thoroughly 
French in design, and its vaulting, in five cells, is perfectly 
Gothic in form. 

1 Cf. Professor R. Willis, Architectural Hist, of Canterbury Cathedral, London, 
1848, p. 75. 

2 See the account of the rebuilding of this choir given in Willis's excellent work. 

3 Cf. Willis, Op. cil., p. 91. 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 



199 



The Cathedral of Chichester, like that of Canterbury, was 
originally a Norman structure of the end of the eleventh cen- 
tury. In the year n 86 it was extensively damaged by fire 
and immediately thereafter repairs were begun which involved 
the entire rebuilding of the two easternmost bays. At the 
same time the whole nave 
was vaulted with oblong 
quadripartite vaults on ribs 
and pointed arches. All of 
the ribs are gathered on the 
single round abacus which 
covers a group of three capi- 
tals that crown the slender 
vaulting shafts. In the piers 
which divide the newly con- 
structed eastern bays we 
already meet with some 
peculiarities of adjustment 
which frequently occur, as 
we shall see, in the subse- 
quent pointed architecture of 
England, and which differ 
materially from those of the 
true Gothic. In these piers the vaulting shafts rest on corbels 
placed just above the great compound capitals of the ground- 
story arcades, and thus have no connection with the lower piers. 
The lower pier (Fig. 107) is composed of a central round column 
of coursed masonry, with four widely detached monolithic 
shafts which are adjusted to the arch orders of the ground 
story only. 1 

The great distance from the central column at which the 
lesser shafts are here placed gives the pier a character in 
marked contrast with that of the Gothic pier in which the 
grouping of members is compact and organic, as in the pier 




Fig. 107. — Chichester. 



1 Sir Gilbert Scott, Rise and Development of Meditzval Architecture, vol. ii. 
p. 142, speaking of the multiplication of arch orders, says: "This gives us our 
clustered columns, which are, in fact, the mere decoration of the receding orders 
of the piers." It is true that clustered columns in England are usually nothing 
more than this; but in Gothic the grouping of members in the pier arises primarily 
from the exigencies of vaulting. 



200 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

of Amiens (Plate II). For the work that it has to do this pier is 
well and beautifully designed. Its lightness and elegance of form 
are noteworthy, and though the load that it carries is very bulky, 
a solid pier of this magnitude would not be any more secure. 
But in a strictly Gothic structure the load would be, in proportion, 
less bulky, and the pier would be correspondingly compact. The 
compound capital which crowns this pier is, in main idea, the 
same as that of the western pier of the nave of the Cathedral of 
Paris, described on p. 126, with the important difference arising 
from the detachment of the secondary shafts. An instance of 
a compound pier with parts thus widely separated from the 
central column, and none of them directly employed in the 
support of the high vaulting, never would occur in the Gothic 
of France. 

The great arcade is the original round-arched Norman one 
more or less remodelled. In the two eastern bays the archi- 
volts have been reconstructed in three orders. The triforium 
here consists of a round arch in each bay, encompassing a sub- 
order of two pointed arches on clustered shafts, and the clere- 
story, like that of Canterbury, has a passageway in the thickness 
of the wall with a single pointed opening in the outer plane of 
masonry, while the inner one has a larger pointed arch flanked 
by two smaller ones carried on shafts — as in the Trinity Chapel 
of Canterbury. Externally there is a shallow buttress against 
the clerestory wall, which is reenforced by a flying buttress of 
almost purely French type, perhaps the earliest instance of a 
well-developed flying buttress in England. 

The characteristics of this building are thus mixed. It is 
not, like Canterbury, a French design, but is apparently the 
work of Anglo-Norman architects who adopted certain features 
of the growing French style, modifying them according to their 
own tastes, but failing fully to appreciate their functional mean- 
ing. Yet notwithstanding its want of structurally consistent 
Gothic character, there is a great deal of beauty in this inter- 
esting monument. 

Almost immediately after Chichester (about 1 190) were begun 
the deservedly famous choir and east transept of Lincoln Cathe- 
dral. In this beautiful building a curious mingling of French l 

1 Some English writers have affirmed that the choir of Lincoln is native English 
work showing no trace of foreign influence. " St. Hugh's choir of Lincoln Cathedral 



vi POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 201 

and Anglo-Norman characteristics is manifest. It is plainly 
an Anglo-Norman 1 modification of that portion of Canterbury 
which was designed by William of Sens, with some French 
details worked in. A comparison of the two monuments seems 
clearly to show this, and all of the artistic circumstances and 
conditions of the country at this time were such as to make it 
natural that it should be so. Bishop Hugh, under whose epis- 
copate the work was executed, was a Frenchman by birth and 
early training ; and his architect, Geoffrey de Noyers, though 
possibly, as English writers affirm, born on English soil, must 
certainly, from the name, have been of French, or Norman, ex- 
traction. However this may be, the plan of the building, 
especially that of the original east end, is distinctly conti- 
nental. In general, the French influence governs the larger 
structural system, while the Anglo-Norman taste is mainly 
apparent in the ornamental details. Structurally there is no 
other building in England which has so much Gothic character 
except Westminster Abbey, in which the French influence was 
equally direct and strong. 

The original eastern termination of this choir was destroyed 
in the thirteenth century to make room for the existing Presby- 
tery. It was apsidal in form, with an apsidal aisle and three 
apsidal chapels. 2 Each arm of the transept had two chapels 
on its eastern side, three of which remain unaltered, and the 
fourth, the north chapel of the north arm, has been recently 
restored to its original form after having been altered to an 
oblong rectangular shape (Fig. 108). Westward of this tran- 

is the earliest building of the Gothic style free from any admixture of the Romanesque 
that has hitherto been found in Europe or in the world," says Mr. Parker, Introduction 
to the Study of Gothic Architecture, p. 102. Such a view is not worthy of serious con- 
sideration in view of the known facts concerning the state of England, and of native 
English art, in the twelfth century. 

1 I say Anglo-Norman, rather than English. For whatever part native English- 
men may, at this time, have taken in architectural works, there can be little doubt 
that all such works, when not, like the choir of Canterbury, wholly conducted by 
Frenchmen, were mainly directed by men of Norman descent imbued with the 
spirit of Norman art. The architecture itself bears witness of this. Native English 
workmen were doubtless employed among others; but they could hardly, at this time, 
have taken a leading part in artistic production. 

2 The plan of this apse was recovered during the last century when the pavement 
of the Presbytery was taken up for repairs. A partial excavation made in December, 
1886, in the south aisle of the Presbytery again laid bare a portion of it. 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



sept the choir is prolonged to the extent of four bays, and 
is terminated by a second transept, a construction which, with 
the exception of a portion of the eastern side, is a work of the 
first quarter of the thirteenth century. The main characteristics 
of this plan are French, and conform very closely with those 
of the original apse of the Church of St. Martin of Tours, which 
was laid out in the eleventh century. 1 That the plan of the east 
end of Lincoln was not of native English origin seems to be 
further shown by the peculiarity of the oblique sides which 
connect the apse with the transept. The same peculiarity 




FlG. 108. — Plan of Apse, Lincoln. 

occurs in the French east end of Canterbury in the portion 
which is embraced by the towers of St. Anselm and St. 
Andrew ; and it looks as if this feature in Lincoln had been 
derived from this source. 

Lincoln Cathedral is vaulted throughout. This is often not 
the case in important mediaeval churches in England, and the 
fact is itself an evidence that no original Gothic movement had 
place in this country ; for it is in vaulting, as we have seen, 
that the Gothic developments primarily arise. The vaulting 
of Bishop Hugh's choir has peculiarities which are difficult to 
describe in words, but the diagram (Fig. 109) shows the plan of 
one compartment, and the perspective elevation (Fig. 1 10) of the 

1 This plan was discovered in the course of excavations made in the year i860, 
and an illustration of it is given in the Bulletin Monumental, vol. 40, p. 147. 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 



203 



clerestory shows the general form of the vaulting conoid. It 
will be noticed in the plan that the axes of the lateral cells are 
set obliquely, so that these cells do not meet each other in a 
point at the crown of the vault; but that they intersect the 
longitudinal ridge at different points, separated from each other 
by a distance equal to about one-third of the width of the com- 
partment. This produces two smaller cells which together form 
an elongated diamond-shaped compartment set diagonally, and 
four other narrow triangular divisions. Such a form of vault is 
without meaning from a structural point of view, and is equally 
without value on any aesthetic principle. It seems to show plainly 
that the builders of Lincoln were not, as has been supposed, devel- 




FlG. 109. 



oping an original structural system. For builders working in a 
spirit of structural invention would hardly go so far out of the 
path of constructive necessity in search of mere singularity of 
design. Gothic vaulting had, as we now know, been substan- 
tially perfected in France long before the choir of Lincoln was 
begun, and the men who contrived this work were certainly ac- 
quainted with French models. In principle these vaults do not 
differ materially from plain quadripartite vaults with a Gothic 
rib system. In addition to the ribs here which have real func- 
tional use, others are inserted which are structurally superfluous. 
The first of these is a longitudinal ridge rib, — apparently the 
first instance of the introduction of this useless member, which, 
however, subsequently became a characteristic feature of vault- 
ing in England, — while the second is the second rib in the pair 
which are substituted for the usual single diagonal. The longi- 
tudinal rib is imperfectly developed, and consists of a mere 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



moulding against the clerestory wall. This longitudinal rib 
springs from the same level as the transverse and diagonal ribs, 
and hence the vaulting conoid does not narrow inward in the 
manner that gives an effective concentration of the vault thrusts 
against the pier, as in true Gothic. On the contrary, the vault 

here widens out against the 
clerestory wall in a way that 
seems to have been purposely 
sought, since the longitudinal 
arch has a slightly cusped 
shape, which increases the 
width of the conoid. 1 

The upright supports of 
this vaulting consist of a single 
vaulting shaft against each pier, 
upon whose capital all the vault 
ribs are gathered. This vaulting 
shaft started originally from the 
pavement, and was banded at 
half the height of the ground- 
story pier, at the impost of the 
great arcade, and also at the 
triforium ledge. 2 The lower 
piers vary in their details, but 
are substantially alike in gen- 
eral composition. They each 
consist (section, Fig. in) of 
coursed masonry, with four 




10. — Choir of Lincoln. 



central octagonal column, of 



1 It ought to be said that the vaulting of the east transept is purer, and more 
Gothic, than that of the choir. The useless ridge rib does not occur here, nor any 
other superfluous ribs. This suggests the possibility that the existing vaults of the 
choir may possibly be of a later epoch than the rest of the system. It can hardly, 
however, be much later, since the character of the work, including the profiling, 
differs little from that of the parts which certainly belong to the original construction. 
Mr. Parker, Introduction to Gothic Architecture, p. 102, states that the choir of Lincoln 
had originally "wooden roofs and flat ceilings." This seems very unlikely; it is a 
conjecture unsupported by evidence, and it is contradicted by the character of the 
entire system. 

2 At present these vaulting shafts do not rise from the pavement, but are carried 
on ill-designed corbels inserted in the wall above the imposts of the great arcade. 
This damaging alteration was made in the fourteenth century in order to gain space 
for the existing stalls. 



vi POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 205 

of its sides channelled. Against each of these channelled 
sides is set a slender monolithic shaft. One of these rises 
to carry the high vaulting, and the others carry respectively 
the aisle vaulting and the sub-orders of the great archi- 
volts. Unlike the pier of Chichester, this pier of the choir 
of Lincoln has a functional relationship with the vaulting 
similar to that of the westernmost pier of the Cathedral of 
Paris, which it resembles in its structural composition, though 
in proportions and ornamental character it is very different. 
The whole system is suffi- 
ciently shown in the section 
(Fig. 112). The pier as a 
whole is composed much like 
a French Gothic pier, having 
a buttress {a, Fig. 112) incor- 
porated with it from the level 
of the triforium. This but- 
tress is reenforced by an 
arch (b) thrown across the 
triforium, and a flying buttress 
(c) springing over the aisle 
roof. The united pressures 
of the central vault and the 

aisle vault are taken by the great outer buttress (d) set 
against the respond pier of the aisle. The total scheme has 
a good deal of Gothic character mingled with features (the 
vaulting conoid, the superfluous ribs, etc.) that are not of true 
Gothic form. Apart from the points in which it fails to be 
Gothic, the structural elements of this work are plainly the 
result of French influence, while the ornamental details, which 
shall be considered in a future chapter, are mainly of Anglo- 
Norman character. 

At the transept crossing the piers show most unmistakably 
the influence of the work of William of Sens at Canterbury. 
These piers are, in fact, structurally identical in the two build- 
ings, except that the Lincoln piers on the east side contain two 
shafts each {a in A, Fig. 113) that have no functional office. 
With this exception they consist in each building of a massive 
central column surrounded by detached monolithic shafts — 
each one of which sustains a rib of the vaulting:. These shafts 




:o6 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



are of two superimposed groups, the first group having their 
capitals at the level of the springing of the ground-story arches, 




Fig. 112. — Section of Choir of Lincoln. 



and the second reaching to the springing of the high vaults. 
But while at Canterbury (B in the same figure) the bases and 
capitals are of the French type, — the capitals having square 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 



zo7 



abaci and Corinthianesque foliage, and the bases square plinths, 
— those of Lincoln are of the Anglo-Norman type, the capitals 
having round abaci and the bases round plinths. The useless 



J 



._ T 



ft 



n¥^HM 



OT 

'.??*» 



^W 






: 



Fig. 113. —Lincoln and Canterbury. 

shafts occur, however, in the Lincoln piers, only on the east 
side of the crossing ; and these evidently do not belong to the 
original work of the time of Bishop Hugh. They are of a 
character which corresponds with the work of the Presbytery, 



2 oS GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

and are thus probably alterations made when the Presbytery- 
was built. The piers on the west side, while designed on the 
same general scheme, are materially different. Only one of 
them (the one at the southwest corner) appears to be an 
entirely unaltered piece of the original work, and in this pier 
the useless secondary shafts do not occur. 

The arches of the ground-story arcade are obtusely pointed, 
and of two elaborately moulded orders. The triforium open- 
ings consist of coupled pointed arches, each embracing a sub- 
order of two lesser pointed arches carried on clustered shafts. 
The triforium has no enclosing wall, but is open, exposing to 
view the timbers of the aisle roof, which, as I have before re- 
marked, is common in the pointed architecture of England. 
The clerestory is of a peculiarly Anglo-Norman type (see above, 
Fig. 110), and is quite unlike the true Gothic clerestory. This 
type appears to have been first developed in the east end of 
Canterbury in the part that may be the work of the English 
William. It consists, as before remarked, of two planes of 
masonry with a passageway between them, and three openings 
in each plane, of which the central one is the larger. Thus 
grouped and varied in magnitude, the three openings pleasantly 
fill the space encompassed by the arch of the vault, and make 
a good architectural composition. But a clerestory of this type 
is not suitable for a Gothic building, because it retains the walls 
which are incompatible with the spirit and principles of the 
Gothic system. In this early clerestory of the choir of Lincoln 
a third opening of diminutive size is added on either side of 
the central one in the inner plane, making a group of five 
arches in all. This form of clerestory is apparently of Norman 
origin, and occurs in the Abbaye-aux-Dames at Caen (Fig. 121), 
and in many other later Norman buildings both in Normandy 
and in England. 

The general effect of the choir of Lincoln was doubtless 
greatly damaged by the destruction of the original chevet. 
The much over-praised angel choir is not an appropriate termi- 
nation for the early choir and east transept, and affords no 
adequate compensation for the loss of the apse of Geoffrey 
de Noyers. 

Contemporaneous with Canterbury and Lincoln is the Church 
of St. Mary, New Shoreham. Its ground story dates from about 



vi POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 209 

1175, 1 and its upper portions from 1190 to 12 10. The nave 
has oblong quadripartite vaulting on a full set of ribs of French 
profile, and the transverse and longitudinal ribs are pointed. 
These ribs, however, all spring from the same level, and thus 
the vault surfaces are not narrowed against the piers. The sys- 
tem is not the same on both sides of the nave. On the north 
side the ground-story piers are heavy columns, alternately round 
and octagonal with capitals of corresponding form. The great 
archivolts are pointed and of three heavy orders, and the arcade, 
as a whole, bears a strong resemblance to that of Malmesbury. 
The vaulting shafts start from corbels at the triforium string, 
and hence the lower system has no organic relationship to 
the vaulting. The design of the south side is more organic. 
The ground-story pier here has a form which resembles a 
group of small shafts corresponding in number with the arch 
orders and crowned with capitals having square abaci and some- 
what French forms. The vaulting shafts start from the pave- 
ment, which gives a more Gothic aspect to the system ; but 
there are only three of them in each pier, and their grouped 
capitals, crowned with a single round abacus, carry the five 
ribs of the vaulting. The whole construction is ponderous, 
and the triforium and clerestory are heavily walled. The 
external system has clumsy flying buttresses alternating with 
pier buttresses of slight development, an arrangement which 
would be appropriate for a sexpartite system (were it not that 
these flying buttresses are set opposite the piers which in a 
sexpartite system would be the intermediate ones), but which is 
illogical in the regular system that actually exists. In this 
building we have, then, at a period when the Gothic of France 
was almost fully developed, an instance of a practically Roman- 
esque design modified by the incorporation of some Gothic fea- 
tures. It is a transitional building only in the limited sense in 
which it is proper to call anything transitional in England. 
That is to say, it is a building in which the pointed arch takes 
the place of the round arch in the vaulting as well as in some 
other parts ; but it is not transitional in the way that the earlier 
French buildings are, because it exhibits no original and funda- 
mental structural innovations. Everything that is done here had 
been better done in France at least half a century before. 

1 Cf. Sharpe, Chichester Cathedral and St. .Vary's, Xerc Shoreham. 



210 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

Conspicuous instances of a peculiar and extensive class of 
early pointed buildings in England are the ruined abbey- 
churches of Byland and Whitby. The pointed arch prevails 
throughout these buildings except in the aisle openings of 
Byland and in the encompassing arch of the triforium of 
Whitby. But the naves of these buildings had no vaulting, and 
were evidently not intended to have vaulting, though shafts, 
like vaulting shafts, rise from corbels, situated a little below the 
triforium string, to the top of the wall. These shafts are thus 
only decorative features, and the buildings throughout, notwith- 
standing their pointed arches and rich mouldings, are the same 
in principle as those of the round-arched Romanesque. They 
consist of massive walls with timber roofs originally over their 
naves without any consistent organic framework of a Gothic 
nature. Rievaulx Abbey, a building in other respects of the 
same class, had a vaulted nave; but the remains of this system 
show that it had little true Gothic character. The vault ribs 
all spring from the same level. The vaulting shafts do not 
form parts of the lower piers. Nothing like the Gothic pier, 
rising through the successive stories, exists; and although there 
are remains of flying buttresses, they are so weak and so low 
that they could have had little more than an ornamental value. 

In the ruins of St. Joseph's Chapel, Glastonbury, dating 
from 1 1 84, are remains of vaulting of true Gothic character; 
but the other parts of the building are wholly without a corre- 
sponding development. It is a small, single-aisled structure of 
rich and beautiful Norman design. 

A nearer approach to Gothic construction is found in the 
early portions of Ripon Cathedral. The internal systems of 
the choir and transept of this monument (dating from the latter 
part of the twelfth century) exhibit features that are closely 
similar to the twelfth-century Gothic of France. The vaulting, 
however, for which admirable provision is made, seems never to 
have been carried out. Only three bays of the north side of 
the choir retain their original form. In these a group of five 
vaulting shafts in each pier rise from the capitals of the 
ground-story arcade. These shafts are crowned with appro- 
priate capitals at the level of the clerestory string, in evident 
preparation for a full system of vault ribs. But the intended 
vaulting not having been constructed, a clerestory wall was 



vi POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 211 

added with a level cornice, and a single shaft was carried up to 
the top of the wall from each group of vaulting capitals. 1 In 
the transept the likeness to French Gothic is still more 
marked. There only three vaulting shafts occur in each pier; 
but they all rise from the pavement, so that, with appropriate 
vaulting, this transept would be almost identical in structural 
character with contemporaneous work in France. The outer 
openings of Ripon are small and round arched, as in early tran- 
sitional Gothic, and the massive walls are provided externally 
with shallow Romanesque buttresses. 

It will be seen that the buildings thus far noticed are very 
diverse in character, though in all of them the pointed arch 
is more or less employed. In some instances this arch is 
used with a structural purpose in portions of the edifice only, 
as in the aisle vaults of Malmesbury ; in others its use is more 
general and a functional system of supports is connected with 
it, so that a really Gothic character largely pervades the work, 
as in the choirs of Canterbury and Lincoln. But in the greater 
number of cases the pointed arch is used without genuine struc- 
tural significance, and in hardly a single case do we find any 
approach to a true Gothic skeleton. Taken together, these early 
pointed monuments of England do not exhibit such unity and con- 
sistency of inventive purpose as would mark the growth of an 
original and peculiar structural development. A further illus- 
stration of this is afforded by the aisle vaulting of the nave of 
Peterborough (Fig. 114), which, though dating from the last 
quarter of the twelfth century, 2 is of a primitive Norman form 
with low segmental groin ribs. In comparison with this the aisle 
vaulting of the Church of St. Etienne of Beauvais(Fig. 17, p. 54), 
more than half a century earlier, is a work of advanced character. 

The lack of a truly Gothic spirit among the mediaeval 
architects of England becomes more marked in the thirteenth 
century, as the so-called early English style takes form. The 
works of this period are distinguished by the general adoption 



1 I have not examined the system of Ripon Cathedral on the spot. The piers, up 
to the clerestory level, are shown in photographs as described in the text, while the 
form of the clerestory is given on the authority of Sharpe {Seven Periods of English 
Church Architecture, plate vi). This choir was lately covered with a wooden imita- 
tion of vaulting designed by Sir Gilbert Scott. 

-Cf. King's Handbook to the Cathedrals of England, London, 1862, pp. 55. ;<>. 



212 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

of the pointed arch in their design, but rather for decorative 
ends than as the result of structural necessities, and by the 
development of peculiar features in the vaulting and the mem- 
bers connected with it, which add nothing to the strength, but 
much to the intricacy, of the construction. Among the most 
important as well as among the earliest of these is the nave 
of Lincoln, erected between 1209 and 1235. The employment 
in vaulting of ribs having no necessary function, which we find 
first in the choir of the same church, reappears in the nave, 




Aisle vault of Peterborough. 



where numerous superfluous ribs are introduced. This practice 
seems to have had a singular fascination for the English build- 
ers ; and the predilection for such ribs gathered strength as the 
native taste asserted itself more and more until, in the so-called 
fan vaulting of the perpendicular style, — the first style of archi- 
tecture that can properly be called English, — the rib system 
becomes a complicated network forming elaborate panelling on 
the surface of the vault. 

In the vaults of the nave of Lincoln there are six unneces- 
sary ribs in each vaulting compartment ; namely, four tiercerons, 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 



213 



a in the plan, Fig. 115, and two Hemes, b in the same figure. 
The longitudinal arches have an approximately elliptical form, 
and they spring from a level not much above that of the spring- 
ing of the transverse and diagonal ribs, in consequence of 
which the vaulting conoid (A, Fig. 116), midway between the 
springing and the crown, has the section shown at B in the same 
figure. Thus here again the vault thrusts are not gathered 
upon the pier in the true Gothic manner. It will be seen also, 
in the section B, that the ribs of these vaults are so arranged 
as to give a convex curve to the surface of the vaulting conoid. 
This peculiarity marks an early step in the direction of that 
fan vaulting which, as just remarked, subsequently became a 



\ b \. 


/ h / 







Fig. 115. 

conspicuous feature of English pointed design. The rib sys- 
tem of the nave of Lincoln is mainly supported by the wall, 
which it penetrates, rather than by the vaulting shafts below. 
These vaulting shafts consist, in each pier, of three very slender 
and compactly grouped members which rise from a corbel 
placed just above the great ground-story capital. They are too 
slender to be effective even to the eye ; and are thus, like the 
vaulting shafts of Byland and Whitby, rather decorative than 
structurally necessary features. The grouping of members in 
the lower piers has reference to the arch orders of the ground- 
story arcade and to the vaulting of the aisles only ; they are 
entirely unrelated to the high vaulting. These lower piers are 
of three varieties, whose sections are given at A, B, and C, 
respectively, in Fig. 117. The small detached shafts of A and 
B are in two monolithic sections, and are bonded with the pier 



214 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



by a projecting band at their junction. The engaged shafts, 
with the keel fillets of the section C, are built up in courses with 
the main body of the pier. These are, indeed, pretty sections, 
and the actual piers are objects of much beauty, but their want 
of connection with the vaulting excludes them from the cate- 
gory of strictly Gothic forms. The clerestory is again of the 
Anglo-Norman type, which retains a good deal of solid wall 

beneath the arch of the vault. 
Both it and the triforium differ 
from those of the choir in their 
proportions and ornamental 
details only. 

All the interior arcades of 
this nave have hood mould- 
ings, which increase the effect 
of multiplicity in the lines of 
the arches — an effect that 
was evidently pleasing to the 
Anglo-Norman taste even as 
early as the time of the con- 
struction of the archivolts of 
Malmesbury. The vaults of 
the aisles are in five cells (as 
are those of the choir also) — 
a half-intermediate transverse 
rib on the wall side dividing 
into two parts what would 
otherwise have been a single 
cell. This half-rib is carried 
by a monolithic detached shaft 
resting on a corbel placed just 
above the string-course which 
runs along the wall at the level of the window sills. The main 
transverse ribs of the aisle vaults are carried by responds con- 
sisting of five closely grouped monolithic shafts, while a cusped 
arcade is carried along the aisle wall. 

The buttress system of the nave of Lincoln is, like the 
internal system to which it belongs, largely wanting in struc- 
tural efficiency and completeness. The clerestory wall is un- 
broken externally by pier buttresses. It has a continuous 




Fig. 116. 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 



215 



shafted arcade of alternate groups of three wide arches opening 
into the nave, and three narrow blind arches. The central 
blind arch in each group occupies the place that would be 
taken by a pier buttress in any logical buttress system, and 
against the wall enclosed by this arch the head of the flying 
buttress abuts, with the effect, to the eye, of piercing the wall. 
The level of this abutment is but little above the line where the 
aisle roof meets the wall, and the very small pier buttress — 
which rises through this roof to the intrados of the abutting 
arch — is hardly noticeable in a general view of the building 
(Fig. 118). A comparison of this clerestory with that of the 
nearly contemporaneous clerestory (Fig. 76, p. 151, and Plate 
III) of the nave of Amiens will afford an instructive illustra- 




FlG. 117. 



tion of the difference between Anglo-Norman pointed construc- 
tion and that of the true Gothic, in this important part of an 
edifice. 

The Cathedral of Salisbury is commonly considered as ex- 
hibiting the early English style in its purest form, and it is 
therefore an important building for comparison with the new 
architecture of the Continent. The structure was begun in 1220, 
contemporaneously with the nave of Amiens, and the two 
buildings may be taken as fairly typical of the respective styles. 
The nave of Salisbury is roofed with quadripartite vaults of 
greater simplicity than those of either the choir or the nave of 
Lincoln. The rib system contains none but functionally neces- 
sary members, and in this system, as well as in the forms of the 
vault surfaces, there are many points of likeness to French 
vaulting. The most important of these is that which results 
from the forms of the loncitudinal arches which rise for some 



2i6 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



distance in a line more nearly approaching a vertical than is 
common in England, and give something of that concentration 
of thrusts, and those necessarily twisted surfaces, that charac- 
terize the true Gothic. Figure 119, a perspective view of one of 
the vaulting conoids, will illustrate this. In this vaulting the 
longitudinal arch is provided with a more pronounced rib than 
is usual in English buildings. An important structural defect, 

however, will be noticed in the 
absence of upright supporting 
members for the rib of this 
arch. The longitudinal ribs 
have no visible supports 
whatever; they penetrate the 
vault surfaces at a consider- 
able height above the spring- 
ing, and leave the reentrant 
angles, formed by the vault 
and the clerestory wall, ex- 
posed to view. 

Below the vaulting a wide 
departure from Gothic prin- 
ciples of design is manifest. 
There is no connection be- 
tween the vaults and the lower 
stories of the structure. The 
extremely short vaulting shafts 
rest on corbels situated far 
above the springing of the 
triforium arches; and thus 
no continuous upright mem- 
bers embrace even two of the 
stories of the edifice, and there 
would be hardly less of an organic structural system if the 
vaults were carried on corbels alone. The ground story and 
the triforium are continuous arcades without division into 
bays, and the unbroken string between them makes a pro- 
nounced horizontal line from end to end of the nave. The 
design has no features below the clerestory that would convey 
the idea of a vaulted structure. The clerestory is heavily 
walled in, as is usual in England, and is lighted by the 




Nave of Lincoln. 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 



217 



customary threefold openings. Thus here as elsewhere in the 
English pointed architecture of the thirteenth century the 
openings remain merely windows in walls, while in the contem- 
porary Gothic of France the whole clerestory space is occupied 
by one vast opening, as in Plate III. The triforium consists of a 
very obtusely pointed arch of three orders encompassing two 
lesser arches, each again embracing two still smaller ones. 
The great encompassing arch 
is necessarily so depressed as 
to accord ill with the more 
acute forms of those with 
which it is associated, and its 
slightly curved sides form 
awkward angles at the spring- 
ing. The great arches of the 
ground story, like most of 
the other arches throughout 
the building, are equilateral — 
that is to say, the centres of 
their curves are in the angles 
of the bases of equilateral 
triangles, and are thus at the 
points of springing. This 
form of arch, or one closely 
similar, generally prevails in 
France. It is also very com- 
mon in England — as in the 
Chapel of the Nine Altars at 
Durham, the Presbytery of 
Ely, and in many of the ab- 
bey churches — as Tintern, 
Bridlington, Netley, Rievaulx, 
Whitby, Byland, Kirkstall, and 

others. But the distinctively Anglo-Norman type is rather 
the lancet form, the centres of whose curves lie beyond the 
points of springing, right and left — as in the smaller arches 
of the nave of Lincoln, and the pier arches of Westminster 
Abbey. The arch sections of this nave are rounded in 
conformity with the usual Anglo-Norman custom, and the 
archivolts are everywhere provided with hood moulds. The 




Fig. 119. — Salisbury. 



2i8 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

lower piers are composed of four mutually engaged round 
columns of coursed masonry, with four slender monolithic 
shafts set at their intersections, the whole forming a com- 
pound member whose parts correspond with the orders of the 
superposed arches. 

The buttress system of Salisbury is very imperfectly devel- 
oped. Nothing more than a pilaster strip is employed exter- 
nally. Beneath the aisle roof flying buttresses are brought to 
bear against the springing of the vaults; but the lateral press- 
ures are almost sufficiently provided for by massiveness of 
wall construction — the wall at the level of the clerestory being 
about two metres thick. No continuous pier reaching from 
the pavement to the external cornice occurs in the fabric, no 
external flying-buttress system is employed, and consequently 
there is no functional framework, as in true Gothic design. It 
is essentially a walled edifice hardly less ponderous than Dur- 
ham itself, notwithstanding its pointed arches, its multiplied 
mouldings, and its slender shafts, which give it a lighter appear- 
ance, and, to a superficial eye, somewhat of Gothic effect. 

Perhaps the next English cathedral of importance, though 
it is not a building of the first magnitude, is that of Wells, 
whose nave and transept, erected during the episcopate of 
Bishop Jocelin (i 206-1 242), are contemporaneous with the 
naves of Lincoln and Salisbury. In the nave of Wells we have 
a repetition of some of the peculiarities which have just been 
noticed in that of Salisbury, while it exhibits some other fea- 
tures that are still farther removed from Gothic forms. Here, 
as at Salisbury, the vaults are, indeed, of true Gothic character, 
but the substructure is not correspondingly so. The vaulting 
shafts descend but little way below the clerestory string, and 
thus the nave, below the vaulting, is not divided into bays by 
continuous upright supports. The triforium is an unbroken 
arcade of narrow pointed openings, without encompassing 
arches gathering them into groups, extending the whole length 
of the nave in a wall of Norman massiveness. The piers and 
pier arches are excessively ponderous, though their effect is 
lightened by numerous subdivisions into shafts and mouldings. 
The buttress system consists, again, of concealed flying but- 
tresses and external pilaster strips. Thus with Wells as with 
Salisbury there is no real skeleton to the building. Its stability 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 



tig 



resides in its heavy walls as much as that of any Romanesque 
structure. I have likened Salisbury in point of structure to 
Durham ; Wells is in some points strikingly like an even 
earlier Norman building — the Abbaye-aux-Dames at Caen. 




Hill in 



Fig. 120. — System of Nave of Wells. 



This likeness is partially illustrated by Figs. 120 and 12 1, — 
portions of the interiors of Wells and the Abbaye-aux-Dames 
respectively. It will be seen that the triforiums are almost 
identical in character, that the imposts in both buildings are 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



continuous — that is to say, there are no capitals or mould- 
ings at the springing of the arches — and even the sections 




FIG. 121. — System of the Abbaye-aux-Dames. 



of the jambs and arches are the same. If the drip mould- 
ings were removed from the triforium arches of Wells, the only 



vi POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 221 

difference between the two examples would be that the one 
has round and the other pointed arches. But the Abbaye-aux- 
Dames is not, like Wells Cathedral, devoid of continuous vault- 
ing supports. It has shafts rising from the pavement and 
thus dividing the nave into bays in the manner that is common 
to organic vaulted architecture — both Romanesque and Gothic. 
The lower piers and pier arches are, moreover, actually lighter 
than those of Wells, though, owing to their fewer subdivisions, 
the general effect is more ponderous. 

The structural system of the Abbaye-aux-Dames is logical 
and organic as far as it goes, and in this respect it approaches 
the nature of Gothic. But Wells, though a building of the 
thirteenth century, fails to be Gothic because it has no such 
system as a basis for its ornamental features, which have more 
or less of Gothic character. There is moreover, in other fea- 
tures besides those already mentioned, a close similarity between 
these two monuments, notwithstanding that they are at least a 
century arid a half apart in date. Both are essentially heavy 
walled edifices, both have their flying buttresses concealed 
beneath the aisle roof, and both display only pilaster strips 
against the clerestory wall. In still other points, also, the 
likeness largely holds. The triple openings of the clerestory 
and the great lantern at the crossing of nave and transept 

— features which have been regarded as peculiarly English 

— are common to both. 

Indeed it may be said of most early English churches that 
in general form and construction they differ little from the Nor- 
man Romanesque. The choir of Ely, the choir and smaller 
transept of Worcester, the great transept of Lincoln, the choir 
of Chester, the transept of York (which has no vault but a 
wooden imitation of a vault), and other similar buildings, 
present substantially the same characteristics. So plain, indeed, 
is the identity of essential structural forms that one has only 
to make even a general comparison in order to perceive that 
the early pointed architecture of England is mainly a Norman 
product somewhat modified by native English influence on the 
one hand and French influence on the other, and that it is, at 
most, very imperfectly Gothic. 1 

1 While we are thus forced to regard the pointed architecture of England as 
fundamentally lacking in that organic consistency and completeness which marks the 



222 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

Westminster Abbey is, however, an exception and is, after 
the choir of Lincoln, the most Gothic structure in England. It 
has a complete and continuous vaulting system and a Gothic 
system of buttresses. The magnificent vaulting of the choir 
is carried on supports of majestic proportions, and the general 
effect of the interior is surpassed by that of few continental 
monuments. The choir of Beverley Minster has something of 
the elevated proportions of Westminster, but its general system 
presents the same lack of Gothic character that we find in most 
other English monuments. Its vaulting has, indeed, no super- 
fluous ribs, but the ribs which it has are not so adjusted as 
to give the vault the true Gothic form. 

Nor are Gothic principles carried out more fully in the later 
structures of the thirteenth century in England. Of these 
later structures one of the most famous is the Presbytery of 
Lincoln, which dates from about 1270. Its vaults have, in 
addition to the true functional ribs, two tiercerons in each com- 
partment. These ribs all spring from the same point, which 
is situated a little above midway between the triforium and 
clerestory strings. The longitudinal rib, hardly more than a 
moulding, interpenetrates at the springing, so that only one of 
its fillets is disengaged below the clerestory string. Above this 
level it soon emerges completely. The vault surfaces are slightly 
winding above the springing; but the twist is soon lost, so that 
the vaulting conoid, at half the vertical height of the vault, 
is nearly square; and the courses of masonry, which are practi- 
cally parallel and level all the way up to the crown of the 
vault, are nearly perpendicular to the wall. Hence the ridges 
are level, and the surfaces are but slightly concave. The form 
is nearly that of a simple intersecting pointed vault — a form 
which Gothic vaults never have. Five small and compactly 
grouped vaulting shafts carry the five greater ribs, which inter- 
penetrate at the springing and become greatly reduced in total 
bulk, and in the numbers of their mouldings. The mouldings 
of the transverse, diagonal, tierceron, and longitudinal ribs, which 
are respectively as at A, B, C (Fig. 122), 1 are reduced by inter- 
penetrations to the impost section shown at D in the same figure. 

true Gothic style, and as thus inferior in architectural nobility to the Gothic of France, 
we may yet recognize that it has often a peculiar beauty and expression. 
1 B is the profile of both the diagonal and tierceron ribs. 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 



223 



The supporting shafts, though corresponding in number with 
the three functional ribs of the vault, do not each sustain a rib, 
as in the French Gothic. The architect was satisfied with an 
impost having a general conformity in the form of the com- 
pound support with that of the load, and did not feel the neces- 
sity of a strictly functional relationship between the individual 
parts of each. The vaulting shafts are as usual stopped upon 
corbels not far below the triforium string; and the larger mem- 
bers of the lower piers are consequently again arranged with 
reference to the orders of the pier arches only, while very 
slender shafts are inserted between the larger ones, for which 
there are no corresponding members in the archivolt. Here, 




then, once more, as almost constantly in Anglo-Norman pointed 
architecture, the employment of structural members was largely 
governed by ornamental motives without a logical regard to 
structural propriety. 

The clerestory of this Presbytery is a variation of the early 
pointed Norman type, and consists of four open arches in each 
of the two planes — the inner plane having in addition two lesser 
blind arches filling the wall spaces on either side (Fig. 123). 
The triforium and lower arcade differ in decorative treatment 
only from those of the nave and choir. Externally there is 
no pier buttress whatever — not even a pilaster strip — either 
above or below the head of the flying buttress. The wall space 
between the clerestory openings is very wide, and is adorned 
with two tall shafted niches, between which, against the face of 
the wall, the flying buttress is brought to bear (Fig. 124). 



224 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

The nave of Lichfield, which must be nearly contempora- 
neous with the Presbytery of Lincoln, differs in some features 
from the buildings already noticed, though it is not fundamen- 
tally different in structural principle. Its vaults exhibit the 
peculiarity of having no proper transverse ribs. In place of 
them two ribs in the positions of tiercerons spring from each 




FIG. 123. — Presbytery of Lincoln. 



pier. This would be a bad arrangement from a structural point 
of view were it not for the presence of a longitudinal ridge rib, 
an otherwise useless member, which affords abutments to the 
crowns of these diverging arches. It is an indefensible arrange- 
ment by which nothing is gained ; and it furnishes another of 
the many evidences of the Anglo-Norman lack of a fine sense 
of either structural or artistic propriety. Diagonals and longi- 
tudinal ribs, cross-lternes, and a secondary rib in each cross-cell 
are included in the framework of this vaulting. All of these 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 



225 



ribs (except, of course, the ridge rib and the Hemes) spring from 
the level of the clerestory string. There is thus no narrowing 
inward of the vaulting conoid, giving concentration of thrusts 
against the pier. Three vaulting shafts do duty for eight ribs, 
but these shafts rise from the pavement and give a degree of 
Gothic expression which is not common in the pointed architec- 
ture of England until the perpendicular period. The clerestory 




FlG. 124. — Presbytery of Lincoln. 



of Lichfield is unusually low, and consists of a single opening 
(with geometric tracery) having the peculiar form of an equi- 
lateral triangle with three curved sides. The whole edifice is 
excessively heavy, though, as in so many other cases, the effect 
is lightened by multiplication of mouldings. 

Such are the structural characteristics of the early and mid- 
dle pointed architecture of England in so far as concerns the 
longitudinal bays both external and internal. There is no need 
of further examination of them. Nothing, I believe, is to be 



226 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

found in other buildings essentially different from the forms and 
adjustments of those already considered. Hardly such a thing 
as a continuous pier, all of whose parts are logically adjusted 
at once to the arcades and the vaulting, can be found in the 
country except in the case of Westminster Abbey ; nor am I 
aware of the existence in England of an entirely logical and 
well-adjusted buttress system. 

From what has been already said it follows that in England 
the mode of enclosure, in the pointed architecture of the 
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, is substantially the same as 
in the round-arched Norman style. Massive walls pierced with 
comparatively small openings continue for the most part through- 
out this period — which in France embraces that of the highest 
Gothic development. The openings are, indeed, usually larger 
than they are in the older style, and they are multiplied and 
gathered into groups so as to give a larger proportion of open- 
ing to that of solid wall ; but in few cases does the wall wholly 
disappear, leaving a vast glazed opening, as in the Gothic of 
France. It could not, in fact, be otherwise, since the Anglo- 
Norman pointed structure has no such sustaining skeleton of 
piers and buttresses as would render safe the entire suppression 
of the walls. It was not until after the middle of the thirteenth 
century that openings became large enough to require dividing 
mullions and tracery. And when at length grouped lancets, like 
those of the east end of Ely and the south transept of York, 
were replaced by one great mullioned and traceried opening (and 
some truly magnificent window designs were produced, of which 
that of the Presbytery of Lincoln is the grandest), even these 
were still mere openings in walls. Rarely, if ever, in Fngland 
does the wall wholly disappear, so that the rib of the vault and 
the archivolt of the aperture become one and the same member, 
as in the clerestory of Amiens and other French monuments. 

Tracery in England, when it comes into use, follows the 
French models until after the thirteenth century, and therefore 
requires no description. 

The east ends in this architecture are usually square, even 
in churches of the largest dimensions. The apsidal form is, 
however, occasionally met with, as at Lichfield and Westminster. 
Not many of the original east ends have survived ; but two 



VI POl.YTED CONSTRUCT/ON IN ENGLAND 227 

typical and important ones have come down to us — those, 
namely, of Ely and Lincoln, which date, respectively, from the 
first half and the second half of the thirteenth century. In 
both the external design corresponds with the internal division 
into nave and aisles. These divisions are in each case marked 
by boldly projecting buttresses, and a higher central compart- 
ment is in both surmounted by a gable which follows the out- 
line of the timber roof. In other respects the two examples 
differ considerably. That of Ely has, in its central com- 
partment, three tiers of grouped lancets — three tall ones of 
equal height in the lower tier, five shorter ones of graduated 
heights, following the line of the arch of the vault, in the second 
tier, and three still shorter ones of nearly equal height, flanked 
on either side by a lower blind arch, in the third tier. The 
lower tier embraces in height both the ground story and the 
triforium, the second tier is in the clerestory, while the third 
tier occupies the lower portion of the gable, lighting the space 
between the vaulting and the timber roof. The lateral com- 
partments have been so much remodelled that their original 
forms cannot be precisely determined, but if their upper walls 
followed the lines of the lean-to aisle roofs, as they presumably 
did, the whole composition must have formed one of the most 
beautiful eastern ends in England. 

The east end of Lincoln retains its side compartments, 
as well as the central one, in their original forms. The 
central compartment has one vast opening, richly divided 
by mullions and tracery, which, however, does not completely 
fill the space between the buttresses, — a narrow strip of wall, 
with a shafted blind arch, finding place on either side of it. 
Above this, over the vaulting, is a smaller, though still large, 
opening of similar character, with two blind shafted arches on 
either side of it. These arches, including that of the opening, 
are of graduated heights in conformity with the raking cor- 
nices beneath which they fall. The lateral compartments con- 
tain each one wide mullioned and traceried window on the 
ground story, above which is a blind arcade of five arches, 
and over this again is a gable having no conformity with the 
shape of the aisle roof, but rising above it as an independent 
and purely ornamental feature. As a termination for the 
structure to which it is affixed, this east end of Lincoln is 



228 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

thus less appropriate and expressive than that of Ely, though, 
considered as an independent composition, it has considerable 
beauty. 

The east end of Worcester is also worthy of notice. Here 
the side aisles do not extend to the extreme end, but leave the 
easternmost bay of the retro-choir without aisles. The exterior 
design is very simple and monumental. It is enclosed by vig- 
orous buttresses, surmounted with shafted pinnacles, and has 
a group of five lancets of equal height on the ground story, 
with a taller group over them of graduated heights, following 
the form of the vaulting within. In the gable above is a single 
trefoiled opening. Nothing could be more appropriate or more 
architecturally effective for a rectangular east end without 
side aisles. 

Transept ends are naturally treated like east ends. Where 
there are aisles, the facade is divided by buttresses into three 
bays, as in the east ends of Ely and Lincoln. Where no aisles 
occur, it is simply enclosed by the buttresses, as in the east end 
of Worcester. The earlier transepts of Lincoln, Worcester, and 
Beverley have exteriors which are among the finest in England. 
In them the so-called early English style attains its most logical, 
its most monumental, and its most beautiful character. These 
structures deserve to be ranked with the best architectural 
achievements of the Middle Ages. The purest work of this 
kind stands in relation to other mediaeval work in England 
as the Gothic of the third quarter of the twelfth century in 
France stands to the transitional and the later Gothic. It may 
be called the classic type of Anglo-Norman pointed art. An 
exceedingly fine example of this type is the front of the west tran- 
sept of Beverley Minster, where a beautiful early wheel window 
occupies the central space in the gable. The wheel window was 
in England never developed to the vast proportions and mag- 
nificence that it attained in the Ile-de-France ; though, on a 
moderate scale, it frequently occurs, — generally at the clere- 
story level, — as in the west transept of Lincoln, where the 
so-called Dean's Eye exhibits a beautiful example of plate 
tracery, while in the south arm of the transept of York we 
have a fine one with bar tracery. 

Of the Anglo-Norman western facade, little in praise can 
be said. As a rule, it is both inappropriate as a termination 



vi POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 229 

of the building, and ill composed as an independent architec- 
tural design. Very few early facades remain. The existing 
west ends of the greater number of the larger churches — 
York, Canterbury, Beverley, Westminster, and many others — 
were built at later epochs than the main bodies of the edifices 
to which they are attached. The most important extant fronts 
of the thirteenth century are those of Lincoln, Salisbury, Wells, 
and Peterborough. The west front of Lincoln (Plate IX) is a 
vast arcaded screen, unbroken by continuous upright divisions, 
with a level cornice repeating its multiplied horizontal lines. 
A gable following the line of the timber roof of the nave 
breaks this cornice in the middle, and octagonal stair turrets 
at each end are crowned with heavy pinnacles. A great cen- 
tral, pointed-arched recess 1 reaches almost to the cornice, and 
is flanked by two lesser round-arched recesses. In each of 
these recesses is a round-headed doorway,- giving access, respec- 
tively, to the nave and side aisles ; and a second lateral recess, 
of much smaller dimensions, on each side, makes up a total 
central group of five arched recesses. On either side of this 
group the walls extend for a considerable distance and terminate 
in the turrets. The face of this wall is enriched by five tiers of 
shafted arcades which are carried around the turrets, while a 
single arcade of intersecting round arches flanks the central 
recess over the subordinate ones ; and over this again a sixth 
tier of tall pointed arcading is carried across the entire front 
and around the turrets. Behind this great screen, and quite 
independent of it, rise two lofty square towers with octagonal 
angle turrets. This facade exhibits four different styles of 
architecture — the work, respectively, of as many different 
periods of construction. The three greater recesses (with ex- 
ception of the pointed arch of the central one) and the lower 
parts of the towers are early Norman, belonging to the origi- 
nal edifice, which was dedicated in the year 1073 ; the portals 
within them are very rich and beautiful late Norman inser- 
tions of about 1 1 40; the rest of the great screen is so-called 
early English, and was probably completed before 1235 ; while 
the upper portions of the towers are in the perpendicular 
style of the fourteenth century. This west front is thus, from 
an historical point of view, one of the most interesting in 

1 This recess was originally crowned with a round arch. 



230 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

Europe, but as an architectural combination it is one of the 
least admirable. Of structural Gothic character it has noth- 
ing whatever, and as a termination of a nave with lower side, 
aisles is wholly inappropriate and inexpressive. 

Almost equally unrelated to the building with which it is 
connected is the west front of the Cathedral of Salisbury. This 
is again a mere screen with a level cornice cut in the middle by 
the gable of the nave, and with a square turret at each corner. 
These turrets are crowned with heavy and projecting cornices, 
above which rise octagonal pinnacles without any features to 
agreeably unite them. Four lesser pinnacles rise at the four 
corners of the square tops of the turrets ; but these, while they 
afford some help to the composition, do not suffice to make it a 
good one. This facade, however, is divided by buttresses, fol- 
lowing the lines of the internal divisions, and thus has some 
degree of conformity with the design which it encloses. 

A different, though still a singularly defective, west facade 
is that of the Cathedral of Wells. It consists of a central por- 
tion in three upright compartments formed by buttresses, with 
two vast towers, one on either side, forming two compartments 
more. The central portion embraces both nave and aisles of the 
building, while the towers extend north and south far beyond 
the walls of the aisles. A vast total width of front again results, 
for which the builders in England seem to have had a singular 
predilection. This facade has thus in reality hardly less of a 
screen-like character than that of Lincoln, though the strongly 
accented vertical divisions give it a somewhat more organic 
connection with the main body of the building. The upper 
portions of the aisle compartments are false walls rising above 
and masking the aisle roofs, whose lines the level cornices 
with which they are crowned contradict. The central com- 
partment is also surmounted by a rectangular mass of wall 
having no more relation to the roof of the nave behind it than 
the walls of the lateral compartments have to the roofs of the 
aisles. The portals of English churches are in general insig- 
nificant and diminutive, and those of Wells are especially so. 
They are, in fact, singularly ineffective as features in the total 
design of the west front, as are also the other openings of 
this fagade, with the exception of three long windows in the 
central bay, and as at Lincoln and Salisbury, they are very 



vi POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 231 

small in proportion to the extent of wall space in which they 
are set. They are little more than loopholes, which would 
give this portion of the building a very fortress-like aspect were 
it not for the rich arcading and the multiplied shafts which 
adorn the composition and lighten the effect. 

Very different from that of Wells, though hardly better, is 
the west facade of Peterborough. This design is again entirely 
unrelated to the building which it encloses. A vast porch of 
three colossal arches, flanked by towers and crowned with three 
ornamented gables, chiefly constitute this front. These arches 
are equal in height, while the nave and aisles behind them are, 
of course, unequal ; and though they vary in width, they do not 
do so in conformity with the divisions of the interior — the nar- 
rower one being placed in the centre opposite the wider nave, 
and the wider ones at the sides opposite the narrow aisles re- 
spectively. The gables have not the slightest relation to the 
roof contours, and the composition as a whole is as unhappy in 
architectural effect as illogical in its adjustment to the building. 

Thus, as a rule, the west front in England is devoid of 
Gothic character — which imperatively demands a logical adjust- 
ment of part to part. It is, on the contrary, an erection 
whose parts have little relation to the real structural scheme. 
Exceptions, however, occur ; and among these may be noticed 
the western facade of Ripon Cathedral, though even here a 
strictly expressive arrangement is not wholly reached. The 
side towers are, indeed, true terminations of the aisles, and the 
three internal divisions are marked externally by continuous, 
though shallow, buttresses. The central, or nave, compartment 
is crowned by a gable which conforms with the outline of the 
roof, and the towers are carried up above this level as in French 
Gothic facades. A minor defect of the scheme is the placing 
of all three of the portals in the central bay so that they open 
into the nave — the lateral tower compartments having no por- 
tals. Doorways so small as these are would, however, hardly 
appear well if arranged in the more logical French manner. 
Their grouping together here is an effective arrangement for 
such small openings ; and when the design is considered with- 
out reference to the building to which it forms the. front, it does 
not appear a bad one. Two tiers of lancets occupy the whole 
of this central compartment between the portals and the gable ; 



232 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

and the towers are adorned with shafted arcades in four stories. 
The design, as a whole, with exception of the arrangement of 
the portals, is appropriate and expressive, and has a good deal 
of quiet beauty. 

The early pointed west front of Selby Abbey also has 
towers terminating the aisles, and a logical arrangement of the 
principal parts ; and that of St. Albans is good also, with 
exception of the level cornices which crown the lateral divisions 
(there are no towers) in disregard of the sloping lines of the 
aisle roofs. 

In the early pointed architecture of England western towers, 
when they occur, are less common and less imposing than those 
of the Gothic churches of France. But the Norman feature of a 
vast tower over the crossing of nave and transept, seldom adopted 
by the French Gothic builders, was perpetuated in England with 
admirable effect. Provision for such a tower was made in nearly 
every church of importance in the island. But in many cases 
this tower now exists as a mere beginning — reaching but a little 
way above the roof of the nave. Most of those extant, which 
are carried higher, are of a comparatively late period, and in the 
perpendicular style, as at Worcester, Gloucester, Canterbury, 
and York. I do not know of any remaining completed crossing 
tower of the early period ; but the magnificent central tower of 
Lincoln, which dates from about the middle of the thirteenth 
century, retains its original form up to the level of the cornice. 
It consists (Fig. 125) of three stories above the cornice of the 
nave. An octagonal stair turret rises against each of its four 
angles, whose sheer ascent gives a majestic aspect to the struc- 
ture. The stories are finely proportioned in their relative heights, 
and the middle one, which is the first that rises clear of the 
nave roof, is admirably designed, as a base for the great belfry. 
This middle story has -no large openings, but the walls are 
enriched by a blind arcade of five arches on each side, while 
a similar arch adorns each face of the turret at the same level. 
The story beneath (small portions of which only are exposed to 
view outside of the roofs) is treated in a similar, though not in 
precisely the same, manner. This lower story, being taller, has 
a string-course about ' midway between its base and cornice, 
which bands the shafts of the arcading. The top story has two 
vast lancets, each surmounted by a gable and subdivided by a 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 



233 



mullion into two smaller lancets. This tower is hardly equalled 
in beauty by any other in England; and it is certainly one of 
the stateliest in Europe. 

Few, if any, spires were constructed in England during the 
twelfth century, and on a 
large scale they appear to 
have been rarely erected 
during the entire early 
pointed period. Large 
existing spires, like that of 
Salisbury, are, for the most 
part, not of earlier date than 
the fourteenth century. On 
a smaller scale a few spires 
remain dating from the 
thirteenth century. Of 
these the spire of Ring- 
stead Church, Northants, 
erected about the middle 
of the century, 1 is a good 
example. The manage- 
ment of the transition from 
the square plan of the tower 
to the octagon of the spire 
is, in such constructions, 
very admirable, and it is, 
I believe, peculiar to Eng- 
land. Instead of starting 
the octagon directly from 
the square top of the tower, 
a four-sided pyramid is in- 
terposed, which the octagon 
intersects. By this means 
no unoccupied spaces occur 
at the angles of the tower ; 
and the design is both constructively 
agreeable. 

Before closing our examination of the pointed architecture 

1 According to Mr. Parker (An Introduction to the Study of Gothic Architecture, 
p. 155) the date of this church is circa 1260. 




mm sw 



Fig. 125. 



jood and artistically 



(34 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



of England during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, we 
may notice the general plan and its relation to the elevation, 
in which points this architecture differs widely from that of 
France. Besides the prevalence of the rectangular east end, 
in which the English church differs from the larger French 
churches, the further difference is common in England of 
two transepts, one at each end of the choir. This pecu- 
liarity, giving the general plan the form of the archiepisco- 
pal cross, had its origin on the Continent, though it was not 
widely adopted or long retained there ; and hence it has, by 
some writers, been regarded as having originated in England. 
That this is not the case, however, is shown by the fact that 
the great Abbey Church of Cluny, dating from the twelfth 
century, had this form. Eastward of the east transept is the 
retro-choir, which is generally as long as the choir proper, and 
beyond this again is often a lady chapel. These parts, in addi- 
tion to the long nave, give the central aisle of an English cathe- 
dral an enormous length, the effect of which is greatly increased 
by the comparative lowness of the elevation — a lowness which 
contrasts strikingly with the soaring proportions of the French 
Gothic churches. The chief general impression received from 
the Anglo-Norman interior is that of a prolonged architectural 
vista, while the external aspect is that of a long low range of 
gabled roofs and buttressed walls, whose outlines are broken by 
the projecting transepts, and by the towers of the west end and 
of the crossing. 

This great length and proportionate lowness may have re- 
sulted partly from chance, and partly from timidity, — from 
chance, in the addition at successive epochs of parts that were 
not contemplated in the original projects, and from timidity, on 
the part of builders who were not remarkable for constructive 
daring, in raising and supporting wide vaults at considerable 
altitudes. But a predilection for length was a peculiarity of 
the earlier Norman builders, which may naturally have survived 
in their Anglo-Norman and English successors. The Norman 
nave of Winchester, for instance, contains twelve bays, that 
of St. Albans contains thirteen, and that of Norwich fourteen, 
while in France the nave of the Cathedral of Paris (one of the 
longest) contains but ten bays, that of Chartres contains but 
nine, and that of Amiens but six. As to the comparative 



vi POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND 235 

heights, it may suffice to say that the choir of Lincoln measures, 
from the pavement to the crowns of the vaults, about twenty- 
two metres, while the nave of Amiens measures forty-two. 
It must, however, be said that the vaults in England are in some 
cases higher than those of Lincoln, while in France none, 
except those of Beauvais, are higher than Amiens, though few, 
if any, are (except those of small churches) so low as Lincoln. 

The vaulted polygonal chapter-house is a structure peculiar 
to England, and it is one of considerable beauty. The plan is 
usually octagonal, as at Salisbury and York; at Lincoln it is 
ten-sided. The chapter-house is vaulted on a system of ribs 
which in most cases spring from a clustered central shaft and 
from responds situated in the angles of the enclosing walls. 
The ribs are often arranged with structural propriety ; but the 
supports are not always adjusted to them in an entirely logical 
manner. The central support at Salisbury, for instance, has 
but eight shafts to carry sixteen ribs which spring from it. 

The openings of the chapter-house have often more Gothic 
character than those of the church itself. At Salisbury these 
openings occupy the whole space beneath the vault and between 
the responds above the level of the low enclosing wall. The 
internal effect of the chapter-house of this type is very pleas- 
ing, but the structure presents no important characteristics that 
are materially different from those which we have already con- 
sidered. 

A significant fact concerning the architecture of the twelfth 
and thirteenth centuries in England is that of the almost total 
absence of vaulting in the smaller village churches. For 
example, the small church of St. Mary le Wigford at Lincoln, 
Corringham near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, and many others 
(which are typical), consist of a nave and aisles with arcades of 
pointed arches, usually of two orders, supported on columns 
whose members are adjusted to the arch orders, and enclosed 
by plain walls with small splayed and pointed windows, and 
open timber roofs. These modest buildings are often very 
charming in both internal and external aspect; in fact, they are 
in many respects the most interesting monuments in the coun- 
try, but they are not, in the primary and strict sense, monu- 
ments of Gothic style. 

It must now, I think, be apparent that the early pointed 



236 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap, vi 

architecture of England is, with few exceptions, very different 
in its nature from that of the same period in France ; that, 
while possessing much beauty of its kind, it does not, like the 
architecture of France, bear the marks of a spontaneous struc- 
tural development ; and that in constructive principle it differs 
little from the Norman Romanesque, of which it is substantially 
but an ornamental modification. I shall, in the concluding chap- 
ter, give further reasons for supposing it to be in the main really 
Norman rather than English. 



CHAPTER VII 

POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN GERMANY 

Pointed forms in architectural design did not appear in 
Germany at so early a period as in England, nor was their prog- 
ress so rapid after they began to be used. Indeed, the pointed 
arch, in connection with structural modifications, had little effect 
here until the fully developed Gothic of France began to be im- 
perfectly copied about the middle of the thirteenth century. A 
reason for this may, perhaps, be found in the fact that Germany 
in the twelfth century possessed a Romanesque architecture 
which, especially in the important churches along the Rhine, 
was of a very admirable character, and was well suited to the 
needs and tastes of the German people. The Rhenish Roman- 
esque was apparently, as we have already seen (p. 40), derived 
from the Romanesque of Northern Italy, which had been de- 
veloped under the Lombard influence out of the older round- 
arched styles, and was thus largely a German art. It was 
therefore natural that the country should be slow to yield to 
the influence of the French Gothic movement, notwithstanding 
that this movement was active in its near neighbourhood and 
among a people with whom it had close relations. During the 
early Gothic development in France the German art of building 
remained wholly unchanged ; and while in the latter part of the 
twelfth century we find some signs of a French Gothic influence, 
no complete or consistent structural changes were as yet made. 
Even so important an edifice as the Cathedral of Speyer, the 
erection of which was nearly contemporaneous with that of the 
choir of the Cathedral of Paris, 1 was constructed in an unmodi- 
fied, and imperfectly organic, Romanesque style. The nave is 
vaulted with round-arched quadripartite vaults in square com- 

1 The Cathedral of Speyer, as it now exists, was, according to Forster (Monu- 
ments d' Architecture, etc., Paris, i860), begun immediately after a fire which had in 
1 1 59 destroyed an earlier edifice. 

237 



238 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

partments, each embracing two bays of the side aisles, following 
the arrangement that had been established in Lombardy, and 
the organic imperfection of the German Romanesque at this 
period is shown in the omission of groin ribs. The vaults are 
furnished, however, with transverse and longitudinal ribs, and 
are formed on the domical model. The piers are of the general 
Rhenish Romanesque type, and hardly possess as much likeness 
to Gothic piers as those which had been designed a hundred 
years before in the churches of Lombardy and Normandy. The 
general form of the building is likewise unmodified Romanesque. 
The clerestory and aisle walls are unbroken by buttresses, and 
the apse is vaulted with the primitive semidome. 

The vaulting of the nave of the Cathedral of Worms, con- 
structed towards the close of the twelfth century (1171-1181 ?), 
is a little more advanced, having a full system of ribs, all of 
which are pointed. This vaulting has not, however, the true 
Gothic form so far as it results from the stilting of the longitudinal 
rib. This rib here springs from the level of the main impost, 
and the vault thrusts are thus diffused over a considerable part 
of the heavy clerestory wall. 

The pointed arch occurs, also, in the vaulting (constructed 
in the latter part of the twelfth century) of the nave of Mainz ; 
and here the groin rib, too, appears, but in other respects this 
vaulting, equally with that of Worms, exhibits a lack of Gothic 
form. Thus, while in a few of the Romanesque churches of the 
twelfth century in Germany we may find some features that 
show a Gothic influence, no thorough adaptation of Gothic 
principles is found, nor are there any signs of an original 
structural activity such as would constitute a native transitional 
movement. 

In the nave of the Cathedral of Bamberg, built near the end 
of the twelfth century, the pointed arch replaces the round arch 
throughout the structural system of the interior (Fig. 126), and 
the vaulting has a full system of ribs in both nave and aisles. 
The compartments are nearly square, and each bay is subdivided 
on the ground story so as to give smaller square vaults in the 
aisles. The springing of the longitudinal ribs is again at the main 
impost, and the vaults have the domical form. The transverse 
ribs are wide and heavy, and of plain square section, but the 
diagonals have profiles of an early Gothic form, consisting of 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN GERMANY 



239 



an almond-shaped member beneath a square one. The piers 
retain the Romanesque character, and the vault supports gener- 
ally consist of a pilaster, corresponding in size with the transverse 
rib which it carries, with a round shaft on either side of it for the 




Fig. 126. — System of Bamberg. 



support of the diagonals, and a second square member for the 
longitudinal ribs. In some of the piers the round shafts are 
omitted, and the three vaulting ribs are awkwardly gathered 
upon a simple pilaster of two orders. The easternmost bay 
has a sexpartite vault, and the bay next adjoining it has an 



24 o GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

intermediate shaft in preparation for such vaulting ; but this 
shaft carries nothing, the vault here being quadripartite. There 
are no triforium openings, and the heavy clerestory wall is 
broken only by a small round-headed window in each bay. 
Externally the clerestory has neither buttresses nor pilaster 
strips. It is as plain as that of a primitive timber-roofed 
basilica. The general scheme of this building, though con- 
structed at a time when the Gothic of France was nearing its 
full development, is thoroughly Rhenish Romanesque. 

The Cathedral of Magdeburg, begun in the first decade of 
the thirteenth century, and finished in 1234, is one of the ear- 
liest German churches in which the Gothic influence is strongly 
apparent throughout the whole interior. The building is not, 
however, completely Gothic even within, while externally, 
though it has a somewhat Gothic appearance, it almost wholly 
lacks the characteristics of a true Gothic structure. The nave 
has oblong quadripartite vaulting on pointed arches, with a full 
set^ of ribs. The piers, however, are arranged for vaulting in 
square compartments, but between the heavy transverse ribs 
which they carry smaller transverse ribs, springing from small 
shafts that rest on the clerestory string, are inserted. The 
vaulting shafts are arranged in compact groups rising from 
the pavement, and consist of a large round shaft against a 
pilaster, with a smaller round shaft on each side. The apse of 
this church is apparently the first of those in which the general 
Gothic form and proportions occur. It is said by Dehio 1 to 
have been derived from such French apses as those of Chalons- 
sur-Marne and Montier-en-der. But while it bears some general 
resemblance to these monuments, it is singularly unlike them in 
respect to the Gothic lightness of construction. The vault, 
though divided into cells and supported on ribs, retains (as do 
the earliest apsidal vaults in France) much of the form of the 
primitive semidome. The cells have not the depth that distin- 
guishes developed Gothic apsidal vaulting. The piers are not 
developed as such. They are merely portions of heavy walls 
pierced with tall pointed openings, while in each of the angles 
in which these walls meet a vaulting shaft is set. 2 

The outside system of the nave has some Gothic appearance, 

1 Dehio and Von Bezold, Die Kirchliche Bankunst des Abendlandes, p. 496. 

2 Dehio and Von Bezold, Op. cit-, p. 495. 



vii POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN GERMANY 241 

which results from an unusually great height of the clerestory, 
pronounced pier buttresses, and large pointed openings. There 
are no flying buttresses, but against the smaller transverse ribs 
and their supports smaller clerestory buttresses are set, which 
thus alternate with the larger buttresses. The exterior of the 
choir and apse, as far up as the cornice of the triforium gallery, 
bears a strong resemblance to the French work of the second 
half of the twelfth century. The forms of the openings, the 
profiling and shafting of the archivolts, and the monumental 
simplicity of the whole design are almost wholly like early 
French work. One feature occurs here which would hardly 
be found in a French apse, namely, a corbel-table under the 
cornice of the apsidal chapels. But these are parts of the 
building in which the more distinctive external structural fea- 
tures of the Gothic system would not, in any case, be called into 
requisition. It is in the buttressing of the clerestory that we 
should look for these, and here the apse of Magdeburg wholly 
fails to show Gothic character. The apse, like the nave, is 
without flying buttresses, and not only so, but the angles in 
which the walls of its sides meet are, save in one or two cases, 
without even so much as a pilaster strip. The stability of the 
structure is maintained by the heavy wall construction that we 
have noticed in the interior. 1 

The Cathedral of Limburg on the Lahn (Fig. 127), which 
was consecrated in 1235, and is therefore contemporaneous with 
Magdeburg, has more of the Gothic structural character, though 
in general external aspect it retains much of the Romanesque 
form and expression. Indeed, to a cursory glance, the exterior 
of Limburg has little to distinguish it from a Rhenish Roman- 
esque building. It is, in this respect, much like the transitional 
monuments of the early part of the twelfth century in France, 
in which the Gothic character is confined to the interior. Yet 
the internal system is in reality supplemented by flying but- 

1 There is, indeed, as we have seen, a good deal of massive construction, and an 
absence of flying buttresses, in some of the transitional Gothic buildings of France; in 
those buildings, however, the system was first developing, the new principles were not 
fully reached, and old elements were not yet wholly thrown off. But the German 
architects of the thirteenth century were not, like the Frenchmen of a hundred years 
before, feeling their way in an unexplored path. The Gothic system had been fully 
worked out over the French border, and the Germans were now imitating it without 
a full understanding of its principles. 



242 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



tresses of effective form, though on account of the shortness 
of the nave only one of these occurs on each side. 

The vaulting is sexpartite on an alternate system of sup- 
ports, and the whole interior design bears a close resemblance 




FIG. 127. — System of Limburg. 

to that of the nave of the Cathedral of Noyon, which justifies 
the inference that its architect was directly influenced by that 
monument. 1 All of the vault ribs are pointed, the vaults are 

1 Dehio, Op. cit., pp. 496, 497, supposes it to be derived from Laon and not from 
Noyon. The likeness is, however, much closer to Noyon. The main piers, having 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN GERMANY 



243 



very domical, and the intermediate transverse rib is stilted to 
bring its crown up to the intersection of the diagonals. The 
longitudinal ribs also are stilted and thus the vaults have the 
true Gothic form. The part of the structural system which 
conforms least with the Gothic character is the intermediate 
pier. On the ground story this is a plain rectangular member 
of considerable bulk, with no shafts or other members incorpo- 
rated with it, while a single vaulting shaft rises from the trifo- 
rium string and is crowned with a capital at the level of the 
main imposts. On this capital are set a pilaster and three 
small shafts which stilt the intermediate transverse rib and the 
longitudinal ribs. Like Noyon, this church has a vaulted tri- 
forium gallery, and a second triforium consisting of an open 
shafted arcade. The great archivolts are of a single order of 
square section, without mouldings and of great thickness. All 
of the structural arches, and internal arcades, are pointed ; but 
the external openings are in some cases round arched. 

A persistence of the Romanesque methods of construction 
is shown in the vaulting of the aisles and the triforium gallery, 
where no groin ribs occur. The nave has but two sexpartite 
bays, and hence the chief thrusts of the vaulting are gathered 
against the three main piers. In the easternmost and western- 
most of these piers the thrusts are met by the walls of the 
transept and the towers of the west end, respectively. In the 
middle pier they are met by the flying buttress already men- 
tioned, which consists of two superimposed arches — one be- 
neath the aisle roof and the other carried over it in true Gothic 
fashion. The intermediate piers of the system have no flying 
buttresses visible on the exterior. 

The choir and apse are both embraced under a single sex- 
partite vault. This gives but three cells of vaulting, and three 
unusually wide bays, to the apse — which retains the semicircular 
plan of the primitive apses. The piers and archivolts are sub- 
stantially like those of the nave, and each pier has a vaulting 
shaft from the pavement, carrying a group of small shafts which 

grouped shafts which rise from the pavement, reproduce those of Noyon almost 
exactly. The alternate principle is thus, as in Noyon, carried out in a pronounced 
form from the ground story upwards. In I.aon this is not the case. There the 
ground-story piers are uniform round columns, and even above the ground story die 
alternation of main supports and intermediate supports is less clearly marked. 



244 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



stilt the vault ribs, as in the intermediate system of the nave. 
The apse is heavily walled, and has small Romanesque open- 
ings. In the vaulting of the aisle and triforium gallery of the 
choir and apse groin ribs occur, and the thrusts are met by fly- 
ing buttresses like those of the main piers of the nave. Lim- 
burg has thus a good deal of transitional Gothic character in its 
main structural parts, while its ponderous walls, small openings, 
and general external form are far from Gothic. It is remark- 
able that when the German builders began to feel the French 
influence, they should have followed so largely the undeveloped, 
rather than the developed, style of France which was before 
them. With Amiens Cathedral in progress while Limburg was 
building, it appears strange that the primitive Gothic elements 
alone should appear in it. 

The decagon of St. Gereon of Cologne, completed in 1227, 
has features which more strongly resemble Gothic, though the 
structure is not more Gothic in reality. The vault has some- 
what the form of a French apsidal vault, or rather of two such 
vaults joined together. 1 It is, however (like that of the apse of 
Magdeburg), constructed on the primitive model of the vaults of 
the earliest Gothic apses in which the form of the semidome is 
still largely retained. The vault cells of St. Gereon are shallow 
and their crowns are steep like the gores of a melon; and they 
are supported on ribs which rest on shafts rising from the pave- 
ment. The form and construction of this edifice are peculiar. 
The ground story has a solid wall of great thickness with a deep 
niche, opening out of the nave, in each bay. Over this is a 
high triforium gallery, and over the gallery a low clerestory sur- 
mounted by a second clerestory of considerable height. The 
forms of the openings of the triforium, and of the upper clere- 
story, are like those of early French work, while the lower 
clerestory has openings of a foliated German type. The archi- 
volts of the lower clerestory are carried on shafts rising from 
the pavement, which are grouped with the shafts of the vaulting, 
producing the effect of a Gothic compound pier. Externally a 
pilaster strip at each angle of the polygon follows the line of 
the internal support, and a flying buttress springs over the aisle 2 

1 The decagon of St. Gereon is oval in plan, as two Gothic apsidal vaults would 
not be, but this is immaterial. 

2 Though there is no aisle on the ground story, the triforium forms an aisle in the 
second storv. 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN GERMANY 



245 



roof, meeting the thrusts of the vaults at their springing. The 
flying buttresses of Limburg are low and inconspicuous, but 
effective in adjustment. Those of St. Gereon are unusually high 
and yet fail to reach a level at which they would be effective in 
a building constructed on Gothic principles. They are essen- 
tially weak in appearance, and must be so in reality. The 
vault thrusts are, however, sufficiently met by the thickness of 
the walls, and by the carrying up of these walls to a height 
equal to that of the crown of the vault, thus giving weight 
above the springing enough to secure stability. 

The Liebfrauenkirche of Trier (begun in 1227) is regarded 
by German authors as the first purely Gothic church in Germany. 1 
It has a singular plan, consisting of a nave and transept of equal 
length intersecting each other in the middle, and thus forming a 
Greek cross. The eastern arm of the nave is lengthened by a 
choir of one bay with an apse. In each of the reentrant angles 
of the cross is an aisle of one bay with a chapel opening out of 
each of its outermost sides. These aisles and chapels so fill 
out the angles as to make the general form of the plan circular. 
This plan is an amplification of that of the east end of the 
French Church of St. Yved of Braisne, where the aisles and 
chapels are arranged in precisely the same manner. The Ger- 
man architect in copying St. Yved merely repeated on the west 
side of the transept the form of the eastern part, thus making the 
plan symmetrical. The vaulting of the apse is in five cells of 
perfectly Gothic character. This apse has no aisles, but it is 
nevertheless divided in elevation into two stories, in conformity 
with the nave, which has aisles, but no developed triforium, 
the clerestory order being brought down to the string just over 
the great arcade which would in most cases be that of the tri- 
forium. The triforium space is occupied by the clerestory shaft- 
ing, the spaces between this shafting being walled up so that 
the actual clerestory is confined to the traceried arch above the 
shafts. The nave is thus made to consist practically of only 
two stories, with which those of the apse correspond. The 
architectural harmony of the interior thus secured justifies in 
the apse what is really an illogical division of a structure having 
no aisle. The apse of Braisne is likewise without an aisle, and 

1 Cf. Dehio and Von Bezold, Op. ciL, p. 495; Forster, Op. cit., vol. i. p. 34; and 
Adamy, Architektonik Jcs Mittelalters, p. 241. 



246 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



it also is divided in elevation into stories corresponding to those 
of the nave. But the nave in this case, having an aisle, has also 
the usual triforium, which, like the ground story and clerestory, 
is carried around the aisleless apse. The ground story of the Lieb- 
frauenkirche is of great proportional height, and it is probably 
because of this that the usual triforium arcade is omitted. The 
absence of the aisle in the apse makes the walls between the 
clerestory shafting unnecessary, and the open character of the 
whole design is thoroughly Gothic. 
All of the vaulting capitals are 
placed at the same level, and while 
the longitudinal rib does not appear 
to spring at precisely this level, 
there is not enough stilting to have 
any appreciable effect on the form 
of the vaulting conoid. In this 
respect the vaulting of Trier differs 
materially from that of Braisne, 
where the twisted surfaces which 
are essential to Gothic clerestory 
vaults are conspicuously devel- 
oped. The Liebfrauenkirche fol- 
lows Braisne in the use of a single 
round column on the ground story 
between the grouped piers of the 
choir and transept respectively. 
The capital of this pier is unlike 
anything French of the best period. 
It is low, with a round abacus, and 
does not prepare the column to 
carry its load in a manner agreeable 
to the eye. In fact, only a part 
of the load is carried by the 
capital. The three vaulting shafts are stopped on an ill- 
designed corbel at some distance above, while a single short 
shaft, resting on the abacus, is interposed (Fig. 128). It is 
true that in some instances vaulting shafts are carried on corbels 
in the French churches. But I believe these are always shafts 
in heavy piers, like those of the crossing, where space is needed 
on the ground story. This is the case in the crossing piers of 




— Liebfrauenkirche, Trier. 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN GERMANY 



247 



Braisne. Such an adjustment is rare, however, even in such 
piers, and nothing like the stopping of a group of shafts above 
a capital will be found in French Gothic architecture. In the 
piers of Braisne which correspond with those of Trier in which 
this awkward arrangement occurs, the deep and well-formed 
capitals of the ground-story columns are corbelled out so as to 
provide ample space on their abaci for the stately shafts which 
rise from them (Fig. 129). 

In the upper parts of the exterior 
the Romanesque characteristics per- 
sist. The clerestory wall has no 
buttresses of any kind, and the 
upper story of the lantern over the 
crossing is equally wanting in Gothic 
features. The apse is well buttressed 
in Gothic form, and the chapels ex- 
ternally closely resemble those of 
the Cathedral of Reims. Thus while 
the Liebfrauenkirche is quite Gothic 
in some parts, it is, on the whole, 
very imperfectly so. 

A curious type of pointed design 
of this epoch in Germany, which 
again shows the persistence of Ro- 
manesque principles of construction, 
is that of the east end of the Cister- 
cian Church of Heisterbach (1202- 
1233?). This monument is in ruin, 
but enough remains to show its whole 
system. It bears a singular resem- 
blance to Gothic design in its pro- 
portions and general form, without 
having any Gothic structural charac- 
ter whatever. The vault of the apse 1 is a pointed semidome with 
a semblance of Gothic form resulting from a division into shallow 
cells with filleted arrises, but no ribs. This semidome rests on 
stilted round arches supported on free-standing shafts which 
rest on the cornice of the ground-story arcade, and on the en- 




1 Dehio and Von Bezold, Op. cit., Plate 200, Fig. 1 . 



248 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

closing wall. The ground-story arcade itself has pointed arches 
on shafts which are supported on a podium. The apse is thus 
a pretty high one, and it is framed in by a group of tall upright 
supports on each side carrying a pointed arch of two square 
orders. It has an apsidal aisle, and a solid wall of vast thick- 
ness, with niches like those of the oval of St. Gereon of Cologne, 
encloses the lower part of the aisle — while above this is a thinner 
wall pierced with a row of small round-arched openings, forming 
what may be called an aisle clerestory, since it rises above the 
roof which covers the niched wall below. Just within the apsi- 
dal podium is set a row of supports consisting of two superim- 
posed columns, one behind each of the shafts of the apsidal 
arcade, with which they are coupled by diminutive arches, over 
which the inner cells of the groined vaults that cover the aisle 
are prolonged to the arcade. These shafts and their arches 
carry the upper enclosing wall of the apse. The system is 
ingeniously contrived for strength, but it is the strength of 
inertia, like that of ancient Roman works. 

Externally the lower wall has an unbroken surface, while 
that of the clerestory has buttresses. The thrusts of the upper 
clerestory vaulting are met by solid buttresses of triangular 
shape built over the transverse arches of the aisle. 

The nave of St. Kunibert of Cologne has very domical sex- 
partite vaulting on a full system of ribs. Here the transverse 
ribs only are pointed, while the longitudinal ribs are of an up- 
right elliptical form without stilting. The main piers are like 
those of Bamberg, and the intermediate transverse ribs are sup- 
ported by small shafts rising from the triforium string. All the 
archivolts and external openings are round arched, and the apse 
has a primitive smooth-faced semidome carried on pointed 
arches supported by coupled shafts. A narrow triforium gal- 
lery, in the thickness of the walls, encircles the apse, with a 
narrow aisle, having round archivolts, on the ground story. 
Both triforium and aisle have small barrel vaults with radial 
axes supported on transverse arches, and thus acting as 
abutments. 

In the Church of St. Elizabeth of Marburg we have an apse 
which closely resembles that of the Liebfrauenkirche of Trier. 
Its vaulting and vaulting system are equally Gothic in charac- 
ter, and, in the descent to the pavement of the shafts of the 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION- IN GERMANY 



249 



clerestory vaulting arches, it is even more like the best Gothic 
design in France. As' in Trier, the apse of Marburg is divided 
into two stories, though it has no aisles to call for such division ; 
and since the nave, also, is without division into stories this 
arrangement is without justification on the score of architectural 
harmony. The nave and aisles of St. Elizabeth are of equal 
height, a mode of construction peculiar to the later pointed 
architecture of Germany. Other churches of this form are the 




FIG. 130.— St. Elizabeth, Marburg. 

Kreuzkirche at Breslau, St. Sebald at Nuremberg, and St. Mary 
at Miihlhausen. This peculiar form gives an ill-proportioned 
section (Fig. 130) such as could hardly be found in the true 
Gothic region of France. The Church of St. Nazaire of Car- 
cassonne has, however, aisles of equal height with the nave ; but 
in general in France, in the comparatively rare instances where 
the aisles are carried up so high as to prevent a clerestory, they 
are enough lower than the nave to secure an agreeable propor- 
tional relationship of the parts, as in the Cathedral of Poitiers . 
(Fig. 131).! But while the Church of St. Elizabeth of Marburg 

1 This figure is copied from Viollet-le-Duc. In a few exceptional instances in the 



250 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



thus consists of but one story throughout, its enclosing system 
is, like that of the apse, divided into two stories, which is a 
needless violation of expressional integrity. 

The most complete carrying out of the Gothic structural 
system which occurs at this epoch in Germany is found in 
the nave of the church of SS. Peter and Paul at Neuweiler. 
This nave has oblong quadripartite vaulting with stilted longi- 
tudinal ribs, well-adjusted pier supports, and effective flying 
buttresses of early Gothic form. 




Fig. 131. — Poitiers. 



Other German churches of the early part of the thirteenth 
century — Bacharach, Bonn, Basle, the nave of St. Sebald of 
Nuremberg, Gelnhausen, and others, have many Gothic features 
which often closely resemble the best French types, but in few 
of them are the Gothic structural system fully carried out and 
the Romanesque elements wholly thrown off. These monu- 

'Ile-de-France something similar to this arrangement occurs, on a small scale — as 
in the village churches of Vernouillet and Feucherolles (Seine-et-Oise) — figured in 
M. de Baudot's Eglises de Bourgs et Villages. Paris, 1867. 



vii POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN GERMANY 251 

ments show that Germany yielded to the Gothic influence very 
slowly and imperfectly — in most cases doing little more than 
to engraft some Gothic features upon architectural designs of 
essentially Romanesque character. 

Even after the middle of the thirteenth century, though a 
fuller Gothic character and expression then began to prevail, 
most German pointed churches still remained very imperfectly 
Gothic. The nave of the Cathedral of Freiburg, completed 
in 1270, may be taken as an example. While the soaring 
proportions of this nave are very fine, and the structural 
features, including a majestic system of vaulting shafts, have 
a general Gothic aspect, the vaulting conoids are not nar- 
rowed against the pier in true Gothic fashion, the triforium 
space has an unbroken wall, and even the clerestory is heavily 
walled in. Externally this clerestory wall is unbroken by pier 
buttresses, and although elaborately wrought flying buttresses 
form a part of the system, they each consist of a single arch, 
which, in the absence of a strong pier buttress, would not 
effectively resist the vault thrusts were it not for the strong 
clerestory wall. The true Gothic flying buttress of x the devel- 
oped type consists, as we have seen (p. 150), of two superim- 
posed arches, which together effect a perfect counterthrust to the 
vaults, the lateral pressures of which are not confined to a single 
point, but extend over a considerable distance up and down the 
pier. A glance at Fig. 76, p. 151, will make clear the difference 
between the perfectly Gothic buttress system, as exhibited in the 
nave of Amiens, and the imperfect buttressing of Freiburg. It 
is true, indeed, that in the early Gothic of France the flying but- 
tress usually consists of a single arch, 1 but notwithstanding that 
in the early Gothic buildings where single flying buttresses 
occur a considerable amount of solid wall strengthens the 
clerestory, yet the French builders usually took care to reen- 
force the piers against the vault thrusts by well-developed 
pier buttresses in addition to the flying buttresses. The func- 
tional members of the system are all necessary to the full de- 
velopment of the Gothic character of a building, and where 
any of them are wanting the structure cannot, of course, be 
completely Gothic. The imperfectly Gothic character of transi- 

1 See above, p. 144. 



252 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

tional monuments is a natural condition of early progress ; but 
a similar character in those of an advanced period indicates 
either misunderstanding of Gothic principles or a preference 
for those of the Romanesque. Whichever it be, such buildings 
cannot be classed with those of a true Gothic type. 

Strasburg Cathedral, begun in 1277, has a different charac- 
ter. The interior of the nave of Strasburg is truly Gothic in 
its structural form. The longitudinal arches are much stilted, 
giving the vaults an effective concentration of thrusts against 
the piers, and the vaulting shafts are functionally adjusted from 
the pavement. The clerestory opening fills the whole space 
between the piers, and the triforium has an open gallery. The 
flying buttress still consists of a single arch ; but a shafted pier 
buttress reenforces the pier at the springing of the vaults, and 
the whole design has a great deal of French character. 

But the most conspicuous, and the most thoroughly Gothic, 
pointed monument of the thirteenth century in Germany is the 
vast choir and east end of the Cathedral of Cologne. In 
Cologne the Gothic structural system is completely and mag- 
nificently carried out, and no elements of Romanesque are 
retained. The choir alone dates from the Middle Ages — 
having been begun in the year 1248 and consecrated in 1322. 
The great French models, Amiens and Beauvais, which directly 
prompted the erection of this building, were closely followed 
in the structural forms and general proportions. As in the 
purest French Gothic, the vaults of Cologne have only the 
functional ribs, the twisted and domical surfaces are distinctly 
developed, 1 and the principal upright supports are compactly 
grouped and continuous from the pavement. The ground-story 
archivolts reach high, leaving the smallest possible spaces of 
wall over them, while from the level of the triforium-string up- 
ward to the vaulting no wall whatever exists. In this the choir 
of Cologne follows that of Beauvais rather than that of Amiens. 
In Beauvais (as we have already seen, p. 142) the Gothic system 
received an exaggerated development. This is shown not only 
in the enormous scale of the structure, but also in the extreme 
length to which the multiplication and enlargement of the open- 

1 Mr. Fergusson, History of Architecture in all Countries, vol. ii. p. 62, speaking 
of Cologne Cathedral, says : "We find it with all the defects of French vaulting — the 
ribs are few and weak, the ridge undulating, the surfaces twisted, etc." 



vii POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN GERMANY 253 

ings were carried. In the choir of Amiens one step in the di- 
rection of over-development was taken in the omission of the 
enclosing wall, so that the triforium could be lighted like 
the clerestory ; but the wall spandrels over the arches of the 
triforium were not removed. In the triforium of the apse of 
Beauvais these spandrels are so diminished that hardly any 
wall remains, and in the straight sides of the choir all wall sur- 
faces disappear from the triforium — their place being taken 
by open tracery. The last condition was reproduced in a uni- 
form manner throughout the triforium of Cologne. This vast 
interior thus has a more complete effect of a cage a jour than is 
to be found in any monument of the best period in France. But 
it is an effect of doubtful value, since to obtain it the aisle roof 
has to be covered in a manner that is not favourable for the ready 
discharge of rain and snow. The best way to cover the vault- 
ing of the aisle is by a lean-to roof, as in the nave of Amiens, 
and this necessarily encloses and darkens the triforium. The 
choir of Cologne is, however, structurally a magnificent Gothic 
design ; but it is in no sense a German product. It is wholly 
an importation from France. In other respects it differs 
widely from the pure Gothic. Its mouldings and ornamental 
carving are in thoroughly German taste, and have nothing of 
the character of French work. 

Hardly any pointed buildings in Germany show any materi- 
ally different characteristics from those of the monuments 
already considered. There is no evidence in this architecture 
of any native Gothic development — and, indeed, the fact that 
the pointed architecture of Germany was directly derived from 
that of France is now generally admitted by competent German 
writers. But it is not yet seen that the borrowed forms were 
seldom so used as to produce what may be correctly called a 
Gothic result. An instance, like that of Cologne, where a 
structural system radically different from the native one is fully 
carried out is exceptional, and in fact unique. As time went on, 
the German architects introduced many meaningless structural 
modifications and details which gave a more distinctly German 
impress to pointed buildings without rendering them more 
truly Gothic in character. Vaults were needlessly broken up 
into a variety of curious forms by ingeniously contrived arrange- 
ments of multiplied ribs ; studied complexities of form were in- 



254 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



troduced in traceries, profilings, and even in more structural 
p ar ts — until at length Germany had a pointed architecture 
which was as peculiar to itself as was the perpendicular style 
to England. But this architecture, equally with that of the 
English perpendicular style, is far removed in character and 
merit from the pure, refined, and monumental Gothic art of 
France. 

Western facades, east ends, transept ends, and towers and 
spires in Germany call for no extended remarks. Like the 
features already considered, they either retain much of the 
Romanesque character, or are, for the most part, made up of 
elements borrowed from the later Gothic of France variously 
modified by the German taste. 

The west fagade exhibits little change until after the middle 
of the thirteenth century. That of Limburg, for instance, is 
thoroughly Romanesque in general form and expression. Its 
square towers, divided into five stories by strongly marked hori- 
zontal lines, rise vertically to the belfry cornices. Each story 
has broad and shallow pilaster strips on its angles, with a 
narrower one on each face ; and these are connected alter- 
nately by corbel-tables and blind shafted arches. In the open- 
ings, which are small, the pointed arch for the most part 
prevails, but the round arch also appears in places, as in the 
transitional architecture of the Ile-de-France of a hundred years 
before. The central bay has a splayed and pointed portal of 
several shafted orders of considerable magnitude — which does 
not, however, fill the whole space between the towers. A 
pointed blind arcade of three arches occupies the story above, 
while a large rose window, with small circular piercings, nearly 
fills the square of the clerestory compartment. There is thus 
very little departure from the general Romanesque scheme in 
this facade. 

The facade of the Lorenzkirche of Nuremberg dating 
probably from the second half of the . thirteenth century, 
exhibits a strange combination of Romanesque and Gothic 
features. The towers are, like those of Limburg, divided into 
stories by strongly marked string-courses. They are very tall, 
and their walls rise vertically to the main cornices. Shallow 
pilaster strips strengthen the angles of the uppermost three 
stories, while against the remaining stories below strong Gothic 



vii POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN GERMANY 255 

buttresses with set-offs are placed. All of the string-courses 
except the lowest two have corbel-tables with pointed arches. 
A single pointed opening breaks the face of each story below 
that of the belfry, except in the second story of the north tower, 
which has a depressed round-arched opening. The belfry has 
a large rectangular opening with six mullions, whose intervals 
are spanned by small pointed arches corresponding to those of 
the corbel-tables in the stories beneath. The belfries are sur- 
mounted with spires to be presently noticed. The central bay 
has a large pointed and splayed portal of unusual proportional 
height, but still a considerable space of wall remains on either 
side of it. Over this is a vast circle, filled with elaborate 
tracery and extending across the whole width of the bay, which, 
on first sight, appears like an opening. In reality, however, 
the opening is bounded by an inner circle of not more than 
half the diameter of the larger one — the tracery between the 
two being Wrought upon the solid wall. A richly ornamental 
gable of open stonework crowns this central bay. The whole 
composition affords further evidence of the slight hold which 
Gothic principles had on the minds of German architects even 
at this late period. The towers, in their structural forms and 
leading lines, are like those of the Lombard and Rhenish 
Romanesque, and they are carried to a proportional altitude 
which exceeds that of Gothic towers. 

In the Church of St. Elizabeth of Marburg the west front, 
which also dates from the second half of the thirteenth century, 
has a distinctly Gothic form throughout. The vertical divisions 
are logically related to those of the interior, and the towers 
are strengthened by vigorous buttresses with set-offs extending 
to the full height, and giving pronounced upright lines and a 
slightly pyramidal outline. The central portal now rills the 
whole width of the middle bay, and the very high belfry stories 
each have a tall lancet opening in each face. The total compo- 
sition is simple and severe, and in its larger features it closely 
resembles the French Gothic. 

Toward the close of the thirteenth century the west front 
in Germany began to receive the more elaborate and peculiar 
treatment which is most characteristic of the pointed design 
of the country. In this later German art the facade is not 
always so logically composed as it is in the art of the earlier 



256 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

time. The west front of the Cathedral of Strasburg, for instance, 
is divided into stories which have no correspondence with those 
of the interior. The ground story embraces both the ground 
story and the triforium of the nave, the great rose opening of 
the second story reaches above the vaulting, while the top story 
corresponds to nothing whatever in the building, being completely 
above the apex of the timber roof over the nave. 1 This facade 
dates from a period when the French Gothic was already in a 
state of decadence, and features derived from the flamboyant 
style of France, but treated in a peculiarly German manner, are 
freely used in it. The acute open gables over the portals, the 
free-standing mullions and tracery over the face of the wall above, 
and the tall open gallery in front of the openings in the second 
stories of the towers are among these features. Considered, 
however, independently of its relationship to the main body of 
the building, it has substantial merits, and is an imposing com- 
position, though it lacks the qualities of the purest Gothic fronts. 

East ends in the developed German pointed design appear 
to follow French models, often pretty closely, in their external 
as in their internal forms — as in St. Elizabeth of Marburg, 
Freiburg, and Cologne. The forms of earlier apses have been 
already sufficiently explained in treating of those of Magde- 
burg, Limburg, and Heisterbach. The exterior, like the inte- 
rior, of the apse of Marburg is perfectly Gothic, and is a very 
close reproduction of that of the Liebfrauenkirche of Trier. 

German transept ends are in some cases of apsidal form, as 
in St. Elizabeth of Marburg, — where the main apse is exactly 
reproduced in both arms, — but they are more usually rectan- 
gular, as in France. Neither the east end nor the transept in 
Germany exhibits any peculiar structural features that need be 
further considered. 

The characteristic German spire was of very late develop- 
ment. Spires of stone appear to have been rarely constructed 
in the earlier period of pointed design. In the wooden spires 
of the earlier monuments, the adjustment to the square tower 
is not generally well managed. But the early German tower 
is often octagonal — as the eastern towers of Gelnhausen. In 
such cases the octagonal spire would naturally adjust itself 

1 This upper story of the facade is, however, I believe, an alteration of the 
original design. 



vii POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN GERMANY 257 

to its foundation without the help of auxiliary features. But 
the German genius was always fertile in the production of 
picturesque effects in architecture, and it has seemed to take 
pleasure in going out of the path of straightforward design, 
and simple construction, in order to secure picturesque variety. 
Many instances of this occur in the adjustment of the tower 
roof to the tower in the Romanesque churches. Where, for 
instance, the tower is square and it would be natural to cover it 
with a roof in the form of a square pyramid set even with the 
walls, the German architect has preferred to set his pyramid 
diagonally — placing stone gables over the sides of the tower 
which thus intersect the roof. The towers of Limburg are 
roofed in this manner. A similar treatment is applied to 
the octagonal towers of Gelnhausen. Here instead of set- 
ting the spire so that its sides would be even with the tower 
walls, the architect has set them obliquely — bringing their 
angles over the centres of these walls. The walls are then 
surmounted with gables, forming dormers to the base of the 
spire, and the resulting composition has a good effect. The 
spires of Gelnhausen are, however, not of stone ; they are of 
timber covered with slating or tiles. In one of them an odd 
form is produced by shaping it on a spiral axis. 

In cases where the octagonal spires are set on square towers, 
the adjustment is generally awkward. The passage from the 
square to the octagon is too abrupt, and when a vertical octago- 
nal drum is interposed as a base for the spire, this drum often 
has a diameter smaller than that of the tower on which it rests. 
The spires of the Lorenzkirche above mentioned are thus con- 
nected with their towers. It seems to have been the intention 
to construct these spires of stone, and the base of the northern 
one appears to be so constructed up as high as the apexes of the 
gables which crown each face of the drum. 1 Some octagonal 
spires in Germany are set evenly on octagonal towers — as at 
Heiligenstadt, but such towers and spires have little Gothic 
character; the tower is a vertical storied edifice having no 
Gothic organism. The spires of St. Elizabeth of Marburg have 
some of the principal features of Gothic spires, but they are not 
of good form, and are adjusted in a strangely awkward manner. 
On the square buttressed tower (Fig. 132) a steep-sided octago- 

s 1 1 judge of this from a photograph. 



2 S 8 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



nal pyramid is set obliquely. This pyramid is truncated at 
a level above its base about equal to the width of the tower, 
and its sides are surrounded by a parapet. From this level the 
spire, whose base is smaller than the area of the substructure, 
rises without any auxiliary features. A 
strongly marked horizontal line thus 
breaks the continuity of the upward con- 
verging lines. The junction of the lower 
octagon with the tower is better managed 
by the placing of a pinnacle on each angle 
of the tower over the buttresses, and by 
a steep gabled dormer over each tower 
wall. But there is little here of that 
organic adjustment of beautifully de- 
signed and finely proportioned features 
— each having, to the eye at least, a 
functional office — which distinguishes 
French spires like those of Chartres and 
Senlis. But the typical spire of the Ger- 
man pointed style is of a different char- 
acter from all those thus far noticed. It 
is a purely ornamental feature of open 
stonework, and is not at all the roof of 
the tower, as true Gothic spires invariably 
are. The spire of the west front of 
Freiburg is a characteristic example. The 
single square tower, which in this case 
terminates the nave, rises with solid but- 
tressed walls to the apex of the timber 
roof over the vaulting. It carries an 
enormous vertical octagon of open stone- 
work, which has a height nearly equal 
to that of the tower itself, and from this 
rises the skeleton spire richly ornamented 
with tracery and crockets. On the 
tower angles, against the oblique sides of the vertical octagon, 
are set solid vertical abutments which, at about a third of the 
height of the octagon, are broken up into open canopies with 
spiky pinnacles arranged in three successive tiers, diminishing 
in numbers as they ascend — their extremities falling within the 




Fig. 132. — Marburg. 



vii POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN GERMANY 259 

general sloping outline of the whole design. The vertical 
octagon is divided into three stories of arched openings, of 
which the uppermost is the tallest, and has a single arch over 
slender mullions and tracery surmounted by a steep crocketed 
gable which rises through the horizontal cornice. Pronounced 
horizontal lines are thus avoided, and the eye is led continu- 
ously upward. 



CHAPTER VIII 

POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ITALY 

During the twelfth century Gothic architecture had no in- 
fluence on the native art of Italy. The direct inheritance of 
classic traditions, and the natural predilection for classic forms, 
had, for the most part, maintained, without essential change, 
an architectural system which differed, in no fundamental par- 
ticulars, from that of the Christian Roman basilica. 1 But at 
the close of the twelfth century the monks of the Cistercian 
order, who had by this time settled in various parts of the 
peninsula, began, in more or less secluded localities, to erect 
churches in which the pointed architecture of Burgundy, the 
original home of the Cistercians, was often closely reproduced. 
The evidence is strong that this Cistercian architecture on 
Italian soil had ultimately a large share in giving rise to that 
peculiar type of pointed building which is known as Italian 
Gothic. 2 But how far this style of building is in reality Gothic, 
we shall presently see. 

The pointed architecture of Burgundy in the twelfth century 
was itself not strictly Gothic. The duchy of Burgundy did not 
come fully under the architectural influences that were active 
in the Ile-de-France. The early pointed architecture here dif- 
fers, in fact, little in its structural character from the organic 

1 I believe that this statement needs no qualification. The strong Byzantine 
influences of the early Middle Ages did not, in general, fundamentally modify Italian 
architectural forms, though they introduced some new features; and the Lombard 
Romanesque of the eleventh century, while essentially different from the basilican 
system, was not a native Italian development, and was never generally adopted. In 
Italian architecture, as such, the basilican forms remained dominant until the close 
of the twelfth century ; and these forms were, in fact, never wholly superseded in 
Italian design. 

2 Cf. Origines Francises de V Architecture Gothique en Italie, by C. Enlart, 
Paris: Thoin et Fils, 1894, in which a full and accurate account of the Cistercian 
architecture of Italy, and its relationship to that of Burgundy, on the one hand, and 
to the subsequent Italian pointed style on the other, will be found. 

260 



chap, vni POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ITALY 261 

Romanesque of the same region. The Abbey Church of Pon- 
tigny may be taken as a fair example. The nave and aisles of 
this building are in all essential respects like those of the Roman- 
esque nave of Vezelay, except that the arches are pointed, and 
that groin ribs are used in the high vaulting, which has some- 
thing of the Gothic form, resulting from the stilting of the 
longitudinal rib ; the aisle vaults have no groin ribs. In some 
points the system is even less advanced than that of Vezelay. 
For in Vezelay the piers are compact, and their vaulting mem- 
bers, which correspond in number with the vault ribs, all rise 
from the pavement. But in Pontigny the pier is of great width, 1 
the pilaster strip is correspondingly wide, and the engaged 
vaulting shaft, with its pilaster, carries all the ribs of the vault- 
ing. The vaulting shaft, moreover, does not rise from the 
pavement, but rests on a corbel at a considerable height above 
it. The nave was not originally provided with flying buttresses, 
though such buttresses were included in the system of the choir 
and apse. 2 Notwithstanding that it was built late in the twelfth 
century, the Church of Pontigny is a heavily walled edifice with 
small openings, and having no complete Gothic skeleton. 

Other pointed Burgundian buildings of this epoch have 
even less Gothic character. The Church of Montreal near 
Avallon, 3 for instance, though vaulted on a full system of ribs, 
has no stilting of the longitudinal arch, and no winding vault 
surfaces, such as results from stilting. The external openings 
here, as in many other buildings of the period in Burgundy, 
retain the round arch, and the whole system has a Romanesque 
expression. This monument retains, in fact, at the close of 
the twelfth century, many of the characteristics of the transi- 
tional architecture of the Ile-de-France of the early part of that 
century. 

Another type of Burgundian pointed architecture is charac- 
terized by sexpartite vaulting, with a corresponding alternate 
system of piers. The Church of Pont-sur-Yonne is of this class. 
Both of these types are, as pointed out by M. Enlart, more or 

1 Measuring 3.24 metres. 

2 The flying buttresses now existing on the north side of the nave are, I believe, 
of a date considerably later than that of the original construction of the building. 

3 Figured by M. C. Enlart in his Origines Francaises itc V Architecture Gothique 
en Italic, p. 249. 



262 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



less fully reproduced in the Cistercian architecture of Italy — 
the first in churches like Fassanova, south of Rome (the 
earliest of the series of Cistercian churches in Italy), dating 
from 1 1 87-1 208, and San Galgano, near Siena, begun in 12 18; 




Fig. 133. — San Galgano. 

and the second in the Church of San Martino, near Viterbo, 
dating from the commencement of the thirteenth century. 1 

The Church of San Galgano (Fig. 133), now in a state of 
ruin, may be taken for comparison with that of Pontigny to 

1 Cf. Enlart, Origines, etc., p. 237 et seq. 



vin POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ITALY 263 

illustrate the unmistakable derivation of the Cistercian archi- 
tecture here from the Burgundian source. 1 Our figure, show- 
ing a portion of one aisle and an oblique view across the nave, 
affords, owing to the ruined condition of the building, a com- 
plete illustration of the structure. It will be seen that the 
longitudinal rib of the high vaulting rises vertically for a con- 
siderable distance above the main impost, and enough of the 
vault itself remains to show the twisted surface, giving, as at 
Pontigny, the Gothic form. Also, as at Pontigny, we have a 
full system of ribs of which the transverse rib (of this rib, how- 
ever, only one stone remains in place) is heavy, and of a single 
order of square section. The pier, too, is identical with the 
pier of Pontigny — having a pilaster strip from the pavement 
with a single engaged shaft resting on a corbel at a considerable 
height above the pavement. The exact similarity holds, also, in 
the ground-story archivolts and their supports, in the pointed 
openings of the clerestory, and with the insignificant exception 
of a small round-arched opening (which does not occur in 
Pontigny) in the triforium wall. It will be seen further that 
the clerestory buttresses are substantially the same, and that no 
flying buttresses are included in the system — the great breadth 
and thickness of the wall, reenforced by the vigorous pier but- 

1 The eminent Italian architect, Sig. Canestrelli, in a recently published monograph 
(Z' Abbazia di San Galgano, Florence : Alinari Brothers, 1896) discusses (p. 79 ei sea.) 
the relationship of the Cistercian buildings of Italy to the architecture of the twelfth 
century in Burgundy and says : " Lo stile usato dai Cistercensi in Italia nella con- 
struzione della maggior parte dei loro templi e uno stile di transizione, che, inspirato 
aglielementi fondamentali dell' architettura lombarda, palesa poi in certe disposizioni 
icnografiche, in alcune forme statiche, ed in qualche dettaglio ornamentale, 1' influenza 
della scuola architettonica della Borgogna. Ma per ragione di questa secondaria 
influenza, non crediamo possa dirsi che i Cistercensi introdussero in Italia 1' archi- 
tettura ogivale. Igermi di questa, lo dicemmo, si palesano appunto in Italia in quella 
primitiva forma lombarda che il Nordini acutamente chiamo proto-ogivare : ne quella 
stessa influenza borgognona a cui abbiamo accennato, pu6 considerarsi di origine e di 
carattere schiettamente francese, poiche antiche e frequenti furono le relazioni 
artistiche fra la Lombardia e la Borgogna, cuna dell' Ordine Cistercense." 

It is true, as we have already seen (p. 44), that the organic Romanesque of 
Burgundy owes its fundamental elements to the Lombard Romanesque. But the 
pointed architecture of Burgundy has some features, derived from the early Gothic 
of the Ile-de-France, which did not exist in any Lombard monuments. It is this 
Burgundian architecture of a partially Gothic character, and not the Lombard 
Romanesque, that was reproduced in Italy by the Cistercian monks. The germs 
of Gothic arose, indeed, as Sig. Canestrelli truly says, in the primitive Lombard 
architecture; but these germs were never developed in Italy. 



264 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

tresses, rendering them unnecessary. In the aisle vaulting 
alone do we find a material departure from, and an improve- 
ment on, Pontigny — here, equally with the nave, a full set of 
ribs occurs. 

We have, then, in the nave of San Galgano a Burgundian 
pointed (not a perfectly Gothic) building on Italian soil. But, 
just as in Pontigny, the vaulting has more Gothic character 
than most Burgundian pointed buildings, so in the vaulting of 
San Galgano we find the true Gothic form, which occurs in few, 
if any, other Cistercian buildings in Italy. In the Church of 
Fassanova, for instance, which is in other respects almost 
exactly like Pontigny and San Galgano in its structural system, 
the vaulting has nothing of the Gothic shape ; and it has no 
groin ribs in either nave or aisles. 

Precisely at what time the Italian builders themselves be- 
gan to use the pointed arch and to give form to the distinc- 
tively Italian pointed architecture, it is difficult to ascertain. 
Among the pointed churches of the first half of the thirteenth 
century are some which are not exclusively Cistercian. Towards 
the middle of this century the Dominicans and Franciscans 
began to take an active part in architectural works ; and in 
the churches built by them, as well as in others of the time, 
various foreign influences are manifest in tangled confusion. 
It is therefore not easy to make out where the elements that 
may properly be called native begin to take form. 

Among the buildings which are for the most part neither 
purely Burgundian nor yet what we recognize as distinctly 
Italian are the Church of St. Andrea of Vercelli and that of 
St. Francis of Assisi. Mr. Fergusson affirms 1 that St. Andrea 
of Vercelli was designed by an English architect, while M. 
Enlart supposes 2 that its architect may have been a French- 
man from the north of France. The structural system of the 
monument affords, indeed, no support to the belief that its 
designer was an Englishman ; and while it has many features 
that indicate an influence from the north of France, it fails 
to exhibit a perfectly Gothic character. The vaulting of the 
nave has, indeed, somewhat of the true Gothic form, and the 
slender vaulting shafts rising from the pavement are enough 

1 History of Architecture in all Countries, vol. ii. p. 324. 

2 Origines, etc., p. 183. 



vin POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ITALY 265 

like Gothic shafts to be the work of a French architect. The 
composition of the ground-story pier has likewise a substan- 
tially Gothic character, though it is of an unusual form, con- 
sisting of a large, round column surrounded by slender shafts 
resembling the piers of Bourges. The vaulting of the choir 
and transept is different ; it has no stilting of the longitudinal 
rib, and hence no perfectly Gothic shape. The mode of en- 
closure is throughout far from Gothic. The heavy walls are 
wholly unbroken above the ground-story arcade save by a 
small round-arched opening in the clerestory of each bay. 
The profiling is a mixture of Lombard or Burgundian, and 
true Gothic elements. The ground-story archivolts are of the 
first type, while the vault ribs, capitals, and bases are of the 
second. Thus in its general structural character, St. Andrea 
of Vercelli conforms in part with the Cistercian buildings of 
the type of San Galgano and Fassanova, while in some of its 
features it follows the early Gothic of the Ile-de-France. In 
its internal system it exhibits nothing that can be called dis- 
tinctly Italian. 

The Church of St. Francis of Assisi has a different charac- 
ter, though with some points of likeness in its details. Vasari 
affirms * that it was designed by a German architect. M. Ramee, 
on the other hand, calls it a French monument and says : 2 " Elle 
est dans le style ogival pur de France," adding that it cannot be 
of German origin since the pointed architecture of Germany was, 
at the time, too undeveloped to have furnished the model. M. 
Ramee is, however, much mistaken in supposing that St. Francis 
of Assisi is a building in the pure Gothic style. Structurally it 
has little Gothic character. But the vaulting is like much of 
the Cistercian vaulting, and Cistercian vaulting of the same 
kind existed in Germany as well as in Italy in the early part 
of the thirteenth century. Vasari's statement is, therefore, 
hardly disproved by such considerations as M. Ramee and a 
few other recent writers have advanced. However this may 
be, the building itself is of a mixed character, and it includes 
some features which must, it would seem, have been derived 
directly from the Ile-de-France. The most important of these 
features is the vaulting of the apse. In plan this apse is a 

1 Lives, etc., London, 1876, vol. i. pp. 51-53. 

2 Hist. Generate de V Architecture, vol. ii. p. 1121. 



266 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

polygon of five sides ; the crowns of the arches over these 
sides reach high up into the vaulting, and the vault surfaces 
are vertical for a considerable distance above the springing of 
the radial ribs. The form is thus perfectly that of Gothic 
apsidal vaulting; and while it is possible that it might have 
been designed by a German architect, since vaulting of this 
nature had somewhat before this time been built in Germany, 
— as in the Liebf rauenkirche of Trier, — it seems unlikely that 
this vault was derived from a German source, as most of the 
details connected with it, the capitals and bases especially, 
are of the pure French types. The work itself seems to indi- 
cate a direct influence from the Ile-de-France. 

The nave, on the other hand, has no Gothic character, ex- 
cept so much as is given it by a full set of pointed ribs in the 
vaulting. The compartments of this vaulting are square, the 
ribs all spring from the same level, and the vaulting conoid 
is thus spread out to the utmost against the wall. The 
building has no aisles, and up to a few feet of the spring- 
ing it is enclosed with an enormously heavy wall. Above this 
level the wall is thinner, and each bay is pierced with a narrow 
pointed opening. Hardly any feature of the design suggests 
a peculiarly native origin, though the plainly bevelled sections 
of the vault ribs foreshadow those that are common in the 
later Italian pointed monuments. Against the walls externally 
are vertical, half-round, tower-like buttresses, with heavy flying 
buttresses abutting at a low level, and spanning the lateral 
chapels of the lower church which is formed by a vaulted 
basement beneath the main edifice. 

A very different scheme is embodied in the Church of St 
Francis of Bologna, dating from 1 236-1240. Here we have 
a nave covered with sexpartite vaulting, a form that is rare 
in Italy, though it occurs in a few other instances — as in the 
easternmost bay of St. Galgano and in the Cathedral of Piacenza. 
While not a Cistercian church, its internal bays, in their gen- 
eral forms and proportions, correspond to those of St. Galgano 
and Fassanova. The piers, however, are very different, the 
main piers of the first double bay adjoining the transept hav- 
ing, on the ground story, an octagonal core with a plain en- 
gaged pilaster on each face, three of which rise to the springing 
and support the main ribs of the vaulting. The intermediate 



vni POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ITALY 267 

pier is a plain octagon column, on the ground story, with a 
single pilaster rising from it to carry the intermediate trans- 
verse rib. Throughout the remaining bays, the ground-story 
piers are uniformly like the intermediate piers of the first bay, 
with a single pilaster support for the vaulting in the main and 
intermediate piers alike. The vaulting has transverse and di- 
agonal ribs, very small longitudinal ribs, 1 and slightly winding 
surfaces in the main vaulting conoids. 

St. Francis of Bologna has a polygonal apse of seven sides 
with an apsidal aisle and radial chapels. Its plan is thus essen- 
tially Gothic and unlike what is common in Italy. This apse 
has a vault of Gothic form and, what is remarkable, its thrusts 
are met by a system of flying buttresses, each consisting of a 
single arch carried high over the aisle roof, precisely as in the 
early French Gothic apses. The vaulting of the nave has simi- 
lar flying buttresses alternating with the solid wall buttresses 
built over the aisle, such as are common in Italy. Thus in 
general form and construction this edifice has a good deal of 
Gothic character, which seems to indicate a strong French influ- 
ence ; and it is, I believe, without a parallel elsewhere in Italy. 

In each of the foregoing buildings the evidence of direct 
foreign influence, in the whole or in parts, is apparent. What 
may be called the distinctively Italian type of pointed architec- 
ture, without features that appear to have been directly imported, 
occurs first, perhaps, in the Dominican Church of Sta. Maria 
Novella in Florence, which was founded in 1278. This church 
has a nave and aisles, a transept in the extreme east end without 
aisles, and a short rectangular choir. It is vaulted throughout, 
and the whole interior is of admirably worked stone. The 
characteristics of the Cistercian pointed art, as exhibited in 
San Galgano, are here considerably modified, but not in a way 
that renders the building any more like true Gothic. The vault- 
ing is mostly in square compartments, which, since the system is 
of the uniform type, produces oblong vaults in the aisles. The 
vault forms of San Galgano are thus, in plan, here reversed. 
The vault ribs, as we shall henceforth invariably find to be the 

1 These longitudinal ribs are shown in a drawing published by Sig. Rubbiani 
in a monograph by him entitled, La Chiesa di S. Francesco in Bologna, Bologna, 
1886 ; but are invisible in the photograph reproduced by M. Enlart in his Origines 
Francaises de P Architecture Gothique en Italie. 



268 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

case in Italy, all spring from the same level, and the vaults 
themselves have consequently no true Gothic shape. The piers 
are composed of substantially the same members as the piers of 
San Galgano ; but their proportions are much more slender. 
The most striking departure from Burgundian, as well as from 
Gothic, design is that of the enormous height given to the 
ground-story arcade. This peculiarity, which became character- 
istic of Italian pointed buildings, is brought about by the great 
width necessarily given to the bays of the nave by the use of 
the square form of vault in connection with a uniform system of 
supports. In the Burgundian pointed buildings, and in the 
Cistercian pointed architecture of Italy, the alternate arrange- 
ment of the Lombard Romanesque is generally followed ; that 
is, an intermediate pier is inserted on the ground story between 
every pair of main piers when square vaults are placed over the 
nave — as in the Church of Pont-sur-Yonne in Burgundy, and in 
San Martino near Viterbo. By thus avoiding the wide spacing 
of the supports of the ground-story arcades, their excessive 
elevation is also avoided. But by the Italian architects of the 
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the square vault without the 
intermediate pier was the arrangement generally adopted. A 
similar arrangement frequently occurs, it is true, in the early 
transitional architecture of the Ile-de-France — as in the nave 
of Bury (p. 67); but such French buildings are on a small scale, 
and the massiveness of their piers is so great that the spans, 
and consequent height, of the main arcades are not proportion- 
ally excessive. The Italians, in their largest pointed structures, 
evince a predilection for altitude in the main arches of their 
interiors. Here in Sta. Maria Novella (Fig. 134) the crowns of 
these arches reach even higher than the springing of the vaults. 
There is thus scarcely any triforium space ; and the blank wall 
of the low clerestory is broken only by a small oculus placed 
far up near the crown of the arch of the vault. 

No adequate buttress system is apparent on the outside of 
the building, and yet the vaults are not tied in by iron rods, as 
they frequently are in Italy. An examination of the structure 
over the vaulting of the aisles reveals, however, the existence 
of powerful abutments in the form of solid walls built upon the 
transverse ribs of the aisles, and reaching up to the rafters of the 
lean-to timber roofs. Similar walls are built over the haunches 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ITALY 



269 



of the transverse ribs of the high vaulting ; and deep pier but- 
tresses against the clerestory walls, with others against the walls 




Fig. 134. — Sta. Maria Novella. 



of the ground story, complete the buttress system (Fig. 135). 
This certainly cannot be called Gothic construction ; though by 
it the stability of the vaulting is secured. 



270 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



The main body of the Cathedral of Arezzo, dating from 
the latter part of the thirteenth century, so closely resembles 
Sta. Maria Novella in its structural form as to call for no 
extended notice. What may be called the Italian character- 
istics in pointed design prevail here equally. But the apse of 




FIG. 135. — Section of Sta. Maria Novella. 



Arezzo has features that are not Italian. Its plan is like that of 
the apse of St. Francis of Assisi, but its proportions are taller, and 
yet it has a less strictly Gothic form. The cells of the vault are 
much less developed and the vault as a whole retains more of 
the form of a gored semidome. The tall mullioned lancets 



vni POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ITALY 271 

with tracery, which occupy three of the bays of this apse, are 
in themselves of thoroughly Gothic character ; they do not, 
however, reach to the arches of the vaulting, and the large 
wall spaces above them betray the Italian, as opposed to the 
Gothic, habit of design. 

Perhaps the next Italian pointed building of importance is 
the Franciscan Church of Sta. Croce at Florence, which is said 
to have been designed towards the close of the thirteenth century 
by the architect Arnolfo. It has a nave of great proportionate 
width with side aisles, a transept at the extreme east end with 
square eastern chapels, and a polygonal apse of five sides. The 
apse and chapels only are vaulted — all the rest of the structure 
being covered by open timber roofs. The main body of the 
church is thus in plan, and in general form, substantially the 
same as an early Christian Roman basilica. Many of the de- 
tails of construction are, indeed, different from those of the 
Roman basilican churches, but these details do not essentially 
affect the general character of the monument. They consist 
chiefly in the wide spacing of the piers (now become general 
in Italian pointed design), giving the arches of the main arcade 
an excessive height, as we have just seen, and in the form of 
the aisle roofs, which consist of a series of gabled compart- 
ments set with their axes perpendicular to the axis of the nave. 
These roofs rest upon walls carried on transverse arches of 
stone, and as the rafters of each compartment are abutted by 
those of the one next adjoining, no trussing is required. The 
piers are simple and uniform octagonal columns of coursed 
masonry, like those of St. Francis of Bologna. The archivolts 
are of two orders of plain square section ; and a shallow pilas- 
ter rises from the capital of each pier to the clerestory cornice. 
This pilaster has, of course, in an unvaulted nave, no structural 
use, but it gives some appearance of an organic system in a 
general view of the interior. A corbelled passageway is car- 
ried all round the interior at the triforium level, except at the 
transept, where it rises in a flight of steps to pass over the 
great arches of the transept, and returns at this level across 
the east end. The plain walls of the aisles and clerestory are 
pierced with a tall lancet, divided by a single mullion and sim- 
ple tracery, in each bay. The only feature of a really Gothic 
nature in Sta. Croce is the vaulting of the apse. This is not 



272 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

merely a ribbed semidome, or a celled vault of a primitive 
character ; it is a true Gothic apsidal vault almost as distinctly- 
developed as that of St. Francis of Assisi, and closely resem- 
bling it. This vault is carried, however, on corbels only ; and 
the crowns of the tall lancet openings which occupy the three 
easternmost sides of the apse fall, as in the apse of Arezzo, far 
below the arches of the vault. Large spaces are thus left 
above them, which are here each pierced with an oculus. 

Features derived from the Gothic are sometimes in Italy, 
as elsewhere, engrafted on buildings which had not originally 
any pointed elements. In the neighbouring Cathedral of Prato, 
a building of the Pisan Romanesque type, such features occur. 
The nave of Prato was covered in the fourteenth century with 
vaulting like that of Sta. Maria Novella in Florence. But this 
vaulting has no organic system of supports in the plain basilican 
Romanesque substructure. Some pointed openings were in- 
serted at this period, among which are the portal of the west 
fa9a.de and the portal of the south arm of the transept — be- 
sides some other pointed openings in the east side, which is 
said to have been enlarged by Giovanni Pisano. The portal 
of the transept is a very beautiful example of the purest and 
most monumental type of the so-called Italian Gothic. 

In the province of Venetia a type of pointed architecture 
occurs which is characterized by the use of the plain round 
column, instead of the compound pier, on the ground story. 
The use, at a comparatively late period, of this form of pier 
shows again how little feeling for the Gothic principles the 
Italians had. The Church of the Frari in Venice is of this 
type. Its vaulted nave and aisles are in other respects on the 
characteristic Italian model — with high arcades, blank and 
diminished triforium space, and a low clerestory. The Frari 
has, however, an apse with vaulting of true Gothic form. An- 
other church of the same type is that of Sta. Anastasia of Verona. 
But the apse of Sta. Anastasia has a vault which is hardly more 
than a semidome, and heavily walled sides without Gothic 
openings. 

The greater cathedrals of pointed design in Italy show, 
equally with the foregoing monuments, how little real Gothic 
spirit, and how little of any kind of structural logic, there was 
in the otherwise superior artistic genius of the Italians. Among 



vni POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ITALY 273 

the more important of these the first in date is the Cathedral of 
Siena. 1 Though built under the superintendence of monks 
from the neighbouring monastery of San Galgano, and following 
the same general structural scheme, the design is not a close 
copy of the Church of San Galgano ; and its variations from this 
model are in the direction of what is peculiar to Italian pointed 
architecture, though the pointed arch is not used structurally in 
its composition. It has domical groined vaulting in nearly 
square compartments, with round-arched ribs all springing from 
the same level, and piers which, while composed on the model 
of those of San Galgano, are more simple because the archivolts 
of the great arcade are of a single, instead of a double, order. 
There are no triforium openings, but a corbelled gallery passes 
along the wall at the triforium level. The openings of the 
clerestory and aisles are pointed, and are larger than is usual in 
Italian buildings. Siena has a dome at the crossing, a feature 
which is foreign to the principles of Gothic, and in no part of 
the edifice is the true Gothic system approached. We have in 
this building an emphatic illustration of the fact that the pointed 
arch had, in the minds of the Italian workmen, no connection 
with structural use. The architectural changes which were so 
interestingly brought about in the primitive Gothic of France by 
the structural use of this arch find no parallel in Italy. In the 
real Gothic, as we have seen, these changes take place first in 
the structural parts of the interior. But in the interior of Siena 
the pointed arch does not occur. The system exhibits no more 
advanced organic character than the naves of St. Ambrogio 
of Milan and San Michele of Pavia, which were built two hundred 
years before. In the external openings only (which in France 
were the last features to assume the Gothic form) does the 
pointed arch appear. 

A still more striking instance of the lack of structural 
meaning in the Italian use of the pointed arch is afforded by 
the nave of Orvieto. Here we find no organic system at all. 
The blank clerestory walls are carried on round arches and 
cylindrical columns, and the whole is covered by a trussed 
timber roof only. The monument reproduces the forms of the 



1 For an account of the building of the Cathedral of Siena see the work of Pro- 
fessor C. E. Norton, Church Building in the Middle Ages. New York : 1880. 

T 



274 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

Christian Roman basilica with no essential modifications. But 
the windows are all pointed. 

The building which is commonly regarded as the crowning 
monument of the Italian pointed style is the Cathedral of Flor- 
ence. This building, as it now exists, is, however, an example 
of the later, and least meritorious, form of pointed architecture 
in Italy. Of the structure begun in the earlier style by the 
architect Arnolfo at the close of the thirteenth century, little 
remains. It is doubtful whether any part of his work was left 
after the remodelling to which the building was subjected in the 
fourteenth century. 

In plan this building consists of a nave and aisles with apsi- 
dal projections north and south, forming a kind of eastern tran- 
sept, an eastern apse, and a vast 
octagonal space enclosed by these 
several parts. The vaulting of the 
nave is in gigantic square compart- 
ments, while the compartments of 
the aisles are of narrow oblong shape. 
All of the vaulting ribs are pointed 
and spring from the same level, and 
the vaults themselves are much domed. 
The exaggerated height of the main 
arcades, already noticed as peculiar 
to Italy, is here emphasized to the utmost. One of these 
enormous arches would embrace the whole nave of a church 
of no mean magnitude, and yet this vast structure, as often 
remarked, fails to impress the eye with a sense of its real 
size. Nor is this want of apparent largeness of scale made 
up for by any considerable beauty of proportions or by any 
peculiar structural interest. The system exhibits, on the other 
hand, some singularly meaningless and illogical features. The 
piers, for instance, have the section shown in Fig. 136, and 
the vault supports are continuous from the pavement; but, as 
may be seen in the elevation (Fig. 137), there are no capitals 
either at the springing of the great arches or at the springing 
of the vaults. The impost is marked in each case by a band of 
mouldings only. Lower down an ill-composed capital (which is 
little more than an ornamental band of leafage and mouldings 
following the section of the pier) is placed. The vaulting ribs 






POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ITALY 



and vaulting shafts are merely the 
corresponding parts of the pier itself, 
which branch off at the imposts. This 
sameness of section, and sameness of 
magnitude, in both ribs and supports 
is a characteristic of the flamboyant 
Gothic of France (though the flamboy- 
ant profiling is different, of course), and 
it is a highly monotonous and uninter- 
esting mode of design. 

The Cathedral of Florence has no 
triforium; but the corbelled gallery, so 
frequent in the larger Italian churches, 
passes around the whole interior just 
below the springing of the vaults, and 
the low and blank clerestory is lighted 
with an oculus in each bay. 

Notwithstanding the wide span of 
the vaulting, no external buttresses, 
other than the pilaster strips of less 
than usual thickness, occur in the sys- 
tem. The enormous side thrusts are 
met by the strength of the walls and by 
the usual Italian wall buttresses over 
the aisle vaults concealed beneath their 
timber roofs. In addition to this, how- 
ever, it has been found necessary to 
insert iron tie-rods, — which disfigure 
the interior here as in many other 
Italian pointed buildings. The three 
apses have the structural character of 
Romanesque works, and the great dome, 
though a magnificent architectural de- 
sign, is equally removed in form and 
constructive principle from Gothic art. 1 




iSLil 



FIG. 137.— Florence. 



1 The existing dome, as is well known, was no 
part of the original design, or even of the remodelled design of the fourteenth cen- 
tury. A dome of some kind, with domed apses, may, however, have been included 
in the scheme of the original architect. A fresco in the Spanish Chapel of Sta. Maria 
Novella contains an interesting representation of a church with a dome and apses 
which have been supposed to illustrate the original design of Arnolfo. 



276 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

But this dome accords well with the other parts of the building, 
and the fact that it does so shows further how little Gothic 
character the building has. It would be impossible to make a 
dome harmonize with a building like Amiens Cathedral. 

The equally gigantic, though never completed, Church of San 
Petronio of Bologna, begun in 1390, closely resembles, in its 
larger features, the Cathedral of Florence. The system is better 
in its details — having its capitals at the true impost levels, and 
the heavy corbelled gallery is omitted. The building is further 
noticeable on account of its buttresses — which are more effec- 
tive than those of Florence, since they rise through the aisle 
roof and meet the vault thrusts above as well as below it. In 
other respects they are like those of Florence and other Italian 
buildings, and consist of solid walls built over the aisle arches in 
the primitive Lombard manner. It is curious thus to find the 
Italian builders at the close of the fourteenth century construct- 
ing buttresses after the manner of those of the Lombard 
Romanesque of the eleventh century; and it shows that the 
architectural system had not essentially changed in its structural 
principles. 

Finally, in the nave of Lucca, also a work of the fourteenth 
century, we have an instructive illustration of the manner in 
which the real Italian architectural preferences frequently re- 
asserted themselves before the period of the Classic Renais- 
sance. The structural arches of this building are, as in Siena, 
of the round form, with exception of the longitudinal ribs of the 
high vaulting. Lucca is taller in its proportions than most of 
the other Italian churches, and the use of the round arch keeps 
the great arcade comparatively low ; while the clerestory also 
being low, space is found for an open triforium of unusual 
height. This feature is almost unique among Italian buildings 
of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and it gives a good 
deal of Gothic expression to this interior notwithstanding the 
prevalence of the round arch throughout the greater part of 
the design. The piers are formed like those of San Petronio 
of Bologna, with the addition of a third member in the vaulting 
system of supports to carry the longitudinal rib. The abut- 
ments are again of the usual Italian type — consisting of cross- 
walls over the aisles ; but here, as in San Petronio, they break 
through the aisle roof. They do not, however, reach so high 



via POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ITALY 277 

against the clerestory wall ; and the thrusts of the vaults are 
further secured by tie-rods. 

Hardly anything more nearly approaching Gothic construc- 
tion can be found among the monuments of Italy. Some other 
isolated Gothic features of a different character from those 
already noticed may, perhaps, occur, and may even be numer- 
ous. One instance worthy of notice occurs in the Church of 
Sta. Maria deila Pieve in Arezzo — where on the west side of 
the crossing are compound piers that have a great deal of Gothic 
form, and are, I believe, almost without a parallel. They now 
carry pendentives for the support of a dome, but they were 
manifestly intended to support a ribbed groined vault. The 
rest of the structure is of a primitive basilican form, though 
the great arches are pointed, and the aisles of the choir are 
vaulted on ribs. 

No consideration need be given to the peculiar pointed archi- 
tecture of Southern Italy and Sicily, because the pointed arch as 
used in that architecture has no relation to vaulting save in a 
few exceptional instances, as in the apsidal vaulting of the 
Cathedral of Naples. The great churches of Palermo, Mon- 
reale, and Cefalu are basilican structures modified and embel- 
lished with elements derived from Byzantine and other Eastern 
sources, but without any Gothic features. 

Having now considered the general structural system of the 
main body of the Italian pointed edifice, we may before examin- 
ing the larger external features next glance at the characteristic 
forms of openings and their relationship to the structure itself. 
These openings are always mere windows and doorways in 
solid walls. They are naturally of small dimensions because 
the retention of Roman and Romanesque principles of con- 
struction renders comparatively unbroken walls necessary for 
the stability of the edifice ; and also because the sunny climate 
makes large openings undesirable. In the clerestory the simple 
oculus is very common — as in Sta. Maria Novella and the Cathe- 
dral of Florence. A narrow pointed window is also frequently 
employed ; but a window large enough for tracery is rare. The 
clerestory openings of Siena are exceptionally large, though 
they are still small as compared with the wall areas in which 
they are set. In other situations the openings may be larger. 
When large enough to admit of it, they are divided by one or 



278 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

more mullions and with simple geometric tracery, or with 
pierced tympanums like those of the early French Gothic. It 
is curious, however, that the pierced tympanum does not usually 
occur in the early work in Italy, but is frequent in the later 
buildings — as in the chapels of the aisles of San Petronio of 
Bologna. It is sometimes very elaborate, with a multiplicity 
of openings enriched by cuspings and featherings, and with its 
solid surfaces embossed with relief carvings — as in the unusu- 
ally large openings of Or San Michele in Florence. These open- 
ings show the same curious propensity for mixing Romanesque 
and Gothic elements that we have found so often in the larger 
features of the Italian buildings. They are round arched, with 
subordinate arches and circles composing a simulated tracery 
wrought in relief on the solid tympanum surfaces — the pointed 
arch occurring only where it is produced by the intersection of 
round ones. Substantially the same treatment occurs in the 
tympanum of the great opening of the top story of the Floren- 
tine Campanile (though the main arch is pointed here), and in 
many other places. In some of the earlier Italian buildings we 
find, as before remarked (p. 271), true Gothic tracery of a simple 
type — as in the apse of the Cathedral of Arezzo. 

Large wheel windows with tracery in west ends and transept 
ends are not often met with in Italy. A fine one of consider- 
able size occurs in the west front of Fossanova, dating from the 
thirteenth century, and is thoroughly French in character. A 
still larger one, now without any dividing members, forms a 
part of the west front of Siena, and there is a smaller one with 
tracery in Orvieto. But such openings are rare on a large scale 
in Italian pointed buildings. 1 

The west fronts of Cistercian buildings in Italy, like their 
Burgundian prototypes, usually conform in outline with the 
buildings themselves — as in Fossanova and Casamari. The 
west front of St. Francis of Assisi follows the form of the 
simple interior which it encloses ; but in that of St. Francis of 
Bologna we get an early instance of the independent treatment 
of the facade which became a marked characteristic of Italian 

1 A large wheel occurs in the west front of the basilican Romanesque church of 
San Zenone in Verona, and remarkable ones are found in the facades of Sta. Maria and 
San Pietro, of Toscanella. But it seems impossible that these should have been pro- 
duced at the early periods to which these buildings are usually assigned. 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ITALY 



279 



work in the fourteenth century. In this composition the division 
of the interior into nave and aisles is truly marked by buttresses ; 
but the outline of the roof is not followed — the walls of the 
lateral bays being carried up above the aisle roofs as mere 
screens which terminate in the sloping lines of the roof of the 
nave as if the building had no clerestory. A characteristic 
instance of later design in this part of the building is that 
of the west front of Siena. The true lines of the roof are 
entirely ignored in this design. They are in reality of low 
pitch ; and the lean-to roofs of the aisles have their eaves on a 
level with the horizontal string-course which forms the cornice 
of the ground story of the fagade. Hence the greater part of 
the ornamental arcades in the side bays over this string, to- 
gether with the deep gables which surmount them, and a 
considerable part of the great central square compartment with 
its steep gable, are purely ornamental erections corresponding 
to nothing in the building itself. The west end of Orvieto and 
of Sta. Croce of Florence have a similar character. The rak- 
ing cornices of the facade of the Frari in Venice follow the lines 
of the roofs ; but the composition is spoiled by the meaningless 
ornamental additions built over them. 

Perhaps the facade in which the most singular contradic- 
tion of the form of the building to which it is attached is 
found is that of the very small Church of Sta. Maria della 
Spina at Pisa. In this case the designers appear to have 
gone as far as possible out of their way to produce an incon- 
gruous front. The building has no internal divisions. It 
is a plain rectangular enclosure covered with a single-trussed 
timber roof of very low pitch. The architects have enclosed 
this simple structure with three steep gables arranged in the 
most childish manner. It is, in fact, an absolutely illogical 
arrangement. The lower part of the front is treated so as 
to suggest an interior of two aisles of equal width by the 
insertion of a central pier, and over each of the divisions 
thus formed they have placed a gable. Then, rising from 
between these, a third gable is set with its slanting sides inter- 
secting those of the other two. The true line of the roof may 
be seen behind the false gables rising between their intersec- 
tions. It is proper to say that this fagade is not a design of 
one epoch, but it is made up of parts that were wrought at 



28o GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

different times from 1230 to 1304. 1 It is, however, a fair illus- 
tration of the Italian inaptness in pointed design. 

The east ends of the Italian pointed churches have a variety of 
forms. In buildings of the thirteenth century the apse is some- 
times, as we have seen in St. Francis of Assisi, of a polygonal 
plan and a more or less Gothic form, though it rarely has a 
completely Gothic structural system. It is almost invariably a 
heavy walled structure, though the general effect is in some 
cases lightened by the insertion of large openings with mullions 
and simple tracery. The apsidal aisle is very rare, and where 
it occurs, as in St. Francis of Bologna, the work points to a 
direct French influence. In some polygonal apses, even of a 
late epoch, as those of the Cathedral of Florence, the elevation 
consists of solid walls roofed with semidomes on ancient princi- 
ples. The square east end is very common, as in most of the 
Cistercian churches — St. Andrea of Vercelli, Sta. Maria Novella, 
the Cathedral of Prato, and the Cathedral of Orvieto. In a 
few instances, as in St. Andrea of Vercelli, this square east 
end has pronounced angle buttresses with set-offs of more or less 
Gothic character; but more commonly, as in Sta. Maria Novella, 
the buttresses are nothing more than Romanesque pilaster 
strips. 

Transept ends are almost invariably square with plain walls 
and pilaster strips, as in St. Francis of Bologna, Sta. Maria 
Novella, and the Cathedral of Siena. 

The towers of the Italian pointed style do not differ materi- 
ally in structural character from those of the Lombard Roman- 
esque architecture from which they are mainly derived. They 
are rarely incorporated with the church itself, and never form 
parts of the western facade as do the towers of churches north 
of the Alps. At Prato the tower, a particularly fine one, rises 
through the wall of the south aisle close to the transept ; but 
generally, as at Florence, it is placed at a short distance from 
the west facade. In form it is a plain storied edifice rising with- 
out set-offs to a considerable height, and covered with a low 
pyramidal roof of timber. In a few cases a steep pyramid of 
stone takes the place of the low timber roof, as in the tower 
of Sta. Maria Novella (Fig. 138), and that of the Badia of Flor- 

1 Cf. l.es Monuments de Pise, p. 99. Par M. Georges Rohault de Fleury. Paris, 1886. 



, 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN ITALY 



281 






ence. The magnificent campanile of the Cathedral of Florence, 
though unique in richness and elegance, may be taken as a 
characteristic example of the general structural form. It has 
five stories, of finely proportioned heights, marked by string- 
courses, of somewhat Gothic profile, which 
pass around vertical buttresses of octagonal 
section placed at the angles and reaching 
from the ground to the coping. The base- 
ment story is a little larger on plan than the 
stories above it, and thus forms an apparent 
foundation without which so high a structure 
would appear insecurely based. The story 
next above, which is of considerably greater 
height and forms a secondary foundation, 
has two pilaster strips on each face between 
the angle buttresses. The upper three stories 
are proportioned in increasing heights, and 
are pierced on each side with beautifully de- 
signed pointed openings, each divided by a 
mullion and tracery and crowned with a 
crocheted gable of great elegance. On the 
third and fourth stories these openings are 
in pairs, while on the top story one opening of 
very large size, with two mullions and richer 
tracery, occupies each face. The whole mon- 
ument is crowned with a deep and elaborate 
cornice carried on corbels, and is covered by 
a low pyramidal timber roof. A steep pyra- 
mid of stone, like that of Sta. Maria Novella, 
is supposed, however, to have been originally 
intended. The universal admiration which 
this tower has called forth is no more than 
just; but it will be readily seen that such a 
structure is different in character from a 
Gothic one — although, as we have seen, the 
tower necessarily embodies less of what is 
peculiar to Gothic construction than any other part of the Gothic 
monument. 

The lack of a logical constructive sense among the Italians 
is especially marked in those square towers of Northern Italv 



~m "■ i 



P'IG. 138. — Sta. Maria 
Novella. 



282 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



which are crowned by octagonal lanterns. Of these the tower 
of the Scaligeri at Verona (Fig. 139), and that of St. Andrea of 
Mantua, are conspicuous examples. In these designs no at- 
tempt is made to effect an adjustment of the two forms such 
as to make them appear like parts of one whole. On the con- 
trary, the tower is crowned with a pronounced bracketed cornice, 
and the lantern rises abruptly from the square area, leaving large 
spaces at the angles wholly unoccupied. Anything like the 
transitional features which in Gothic art 
give the sense of organic unity between 
the tower and its superstructure is hardly 
ever found in Italy. In a few instances, 
however, an attempt to produce a more 
satisfactory arrangement is made, as in 
the conical spire that crowns the square 
tower of primitive Lombard form which is 
incorporated with the Church of San Fermo 
Maggiore of Verona. But the diminutive 
cones, mounted on square bases, which are 
set on the angles of this tower, though 
they improve the otherwise bald composi- 
tion, have little organic relationship to the 
spire. A comparison of this work with 
the old tower and spire of Chartres (Fig. 
100, p. 186) will show the childishness of 
Italian art in the shaping and adjustment 
of such features. The true Gothic spire 
was never constructed in Italy. It is a 
feature that would not accord with the 
general character of the Italian pointed 
building. 

From what has already been said, it will 
be seen that the general external form of the Italian pointed 
church is substantially like that of the basilican Romanesque 
edifice. It has a simple outline, unbroken by features such as 
pertain to the Gothic of the North. The steep gables and pin- 
nacles often added to the facades, as in Orvieto and Siena, have 
no logical meaning, since they correspond to nothing in the real 
form of the building. In some instances such features were, in 
childish imitation of the Gothic, added to other parts of the Italian 




Fig. 139. — Tower of the 
Scaligeri. 



vni POINTED CONSTRUCTION- IN ITALY 283 

exterior — as in the gables and pinnacles set around the apse of 
S. Fermo of Verona, and along the sides of the Spina in Pisa. 
In S. Fermo the pinnacles do, indeed, crown a series of but- 
tresses, and may therefore be regarded as having the same 
function that they have in a Gothic building ; though with the 
heavy Italian construction they can hardly be needed. But in the 
Spina they are useless, since the church is not vaulted. These 
elaborate pinnacles set at intervals along its walls are therefore 
inappropriate. The broken outline and multiplied upright fea- 
tures of a Gothic cathedral like Reims or Amiens are the natural 
expression of the Gothic structural system. To associate such 
elements with buildings of the Italian type is to violate the 
principles of architectural design, and to produce incongruous 
effects. 

The characteristics of the pointed architecture of Italy are 
fully enough set forth by the monuments already noticed. 
While there are many minor local variations of type, the same 
general absence of really Gothic modes of construction and of 
Gothic form prevails from one end of the country to the other. 
The only conspicuous exception is that of the Cathedral of 
Milan — a design of late German character which is but a 
travesty of Gothic. From the time of the building of St. 
Francis of Assisi to that of the building of San Petronio of 
Bologna, a period of nearly a century and a half had elapsed 
without bringing about any material departure from the struc- 
tural principles of ancient times. Structural invention was not 
a gift of the Italian people, who were in other respects so 
richly endowed with artistic powers. After the fourteenth 
century the elements borrowed from the Gothic fell rapidly 
into disuse, and the Italians returned to modes of composition 
that were more congenial and more suitable to them. 



CHAPTER IX 

POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN SPAIN 

No important native architecture appears to have existed in 
Spain during the early Middle Ages. Extensive Roman monu- 
ments had been erected there, as in Southern Gaul, in more 
ancient times, and the exotic Moorish art had, at a later period, 
reached a high degree of development in the southern portions 
of the peninsula ; but in the Christian north no architectural 
works of consequence, subsequent to those of the Roman epoch, 
arose until late in the eleventh century, when a Romanesque art 
of great excellence, embodying features that are common in the 
contemporaneous monuments of those provinces of Gaul which 
lie nearest to the Pyrenees, took form. During the twelfth cen- 
tury a robust type of pointed architecture was introduced, the 
main characteristics of which resemble those of the same period 
in Burgundy and Aquitaine, associated with features derived 
from the Romanesque of Spain itself, and frequently including 
the dome on pendentives over the crossing which had been 
common, also, in the churches of Southern Gaul. 

Among the most important, and among the earliest, Spanish 
pointed buildings of the twelfth century is the old Cathedral of 
Salamanca. The system of the nave of this church (Fig. 140) 
corresponds closely in its general form with contemporaneous 
Burgundian design ; though it has a massiveness throughout 
that is extraordinary, and which exceeds even that of the most 
ponderous Lombard constructions. The vaulting is quadripartite 
in wide oblong compartments on transverse and diagonal ribs ; 
but without longitudinal ribs. The ribs are pointed, and are of 
enormous strength, — the transverse ribs being of two orders 
of square section, while the diagonals are profiled with a roll 
moulding on each edge, and a gorge with lateral fillets on the 
soffit between them. The vault surfaces are, owing to the great 
massiveness of the ribs, comparatively small in area ; but they 

284 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN SPAIN 



285 



appear to have something of the Gothic shape. The masonry 
of this vaulting is, for the most part, like that of contemporane- 




"I I 



■r\m\\\ mmm'is-^ 

Fin. 140. — System of Salamanca. 

ous French work — the courses running in the direction of the 
long and short axes respectively, and being roughly tapered 



286 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

and more or less gore-shaped. But in some of the compart- 
ments the cupola form is given to some of the cells, with the 
courses arranged in concentric horizontal lines. It is curious 
that these two forms should thus occur, as they do, even in the 
same vault compartments. In the transept one whole com- 
partment has the cupola form, with diagonal ribs of an earlier 
type. The pier supports rise from the pavement, and consist of 
a heavy pilaster strip with an engaged column, which together 
carry the double transverse rib, and a smaller shaft on each side 
to carry the diagonal ribs. This secondary shaft is generally 
wanting in the contemporaneous Burgundian architecture ; and 
the whole vaulting group here strongly resembles those of the 
early Gothic of the Ile-de-France. The capitals, also, have much 
the character of the early French Gothic. The diagonal ribs 
are not well adjusted to their supports ; they are too bulky to 
be gathered upon the capitals of the shafts, and these capitals 
are set square with the wall, and hence do not offer properly 
shaped beds for ribs of square section in the diagonal position. 
Corbels set diagonally are therefore interposed. The vaulting 
members are, in fact, so heavy as compared with the size of the 
supports as to suggest that they may not be parts of one original 
design. Yet they are in other respects logically related to each 
other, and they have the appearance of being contemporaneous 
work. 

A noticeable peculiarity of the composition is the great 
relative height of the ground story, which crowds the triforium 
and clerestory into a comparatively narrow space. This is not, 
as in Italy, due to a wide spacing of the piers. The spacings 
from centre to centre are, indeed, considerable, but the great 
bulk of the piers is such as to narrow the spans of the arches 
so that there was no constructive necessity for the high level 
to which they reach. It is the great height of the ground-story 
pier itself that makes the arch so high. This high ground-story 
pier is of frequent occurrence in the subsequent pointed archi- 
tecture of Spain. The apse is Romanesque of the type that 
was common in Southern Gaul, and is covered with a primitive 
semidome. 

Salamanca has a dome at the crossing which is worthy of 
special consideration here. The dome as such is not, as we 
have already seen, a Gothic feature — or a feature which can 



ix POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN SPAIN 287 

be developed in a Gothic direction ; but this is not a common 
dome : it is a structure which approaches the nature of a Gothic 
vault. It is carried on pendentives supported by pointed arches 
like those of St. Front of Perigueux. It does not, however, 
like the domes of Perigueux, and like Byzantine domes in 
general, rest directly on the pendentives. A vertical structure 
is interposed, consisting of two stages of arcading with sixteen 
engaged columns embracing both stages. Moreover, the dome 
itself is not a simple hemispherical, or oval, shell of masonry ; 
but, like the vertical supporting drum, it is an organized structure 
and is composed of a system of converging ribs springing from 
the engaged columns and dividing the vault into gore-shaped cells 
which are enclosed with arched courses of masonry somewhat in 
the manner of primitive Gothic apsidal vaulting. The outside 
covering (Fig. 141) is of a monumental character, and of curious 
form. It may be roughly described as an obtuse conoid with a 
curved outline having eight crocketed ribs rising from the base 
to the apex. The plan at the base appears to be almost circular, 
but the upper two-thirds of the elevation seem to become flat- 
sided between the ribs so as to give an octagonal section. The 
outlines, both of plan and elevation, have a good deal of irregu- 
larity, such as is common, and not unpleasing, in much mediaeval 
work. The vertical substructure appears to be a polygon of 
sixteen sides, and is treated in a manner that produces at once 
an effective system of abutments, and a noble architectural 
design. From the four angles of the square of the crossing 
rise four round turrets engaged with the drum, and reaching 
in two stories to its cornice. These are covered with conical 
roofs of stone. On the centre of each side of the square is set a 
projecting bay of two stories, each having a round arch of two 
shafted orders. This is surmounted by a rectangular mass of 
wall with a diminutive blind arcade of three arches on its face, 
and over this is a gable. The eight remaining sides of the 
polygon have each a round-arched shafted opening, and in each 
of the reentrant angles where the turrets join the drum is set 
a stout buttress column. 

Now it is remarkable that this composition as a whole is a 
modified reproduction of those early Gothic spires which had 
been developed in the north of France soon after the middle of 
the twelfth century. The lantern of Salamanca has the same prin- 



288 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



cipal features, arranged in the same manner, that compose the 
old spire of the Cathedral of Chartres ; the principal modification 
made by the architect of the Spanish design being the short- 
ening of the proportions of all the parts that rise above the 
cornice of the drum to adapt them to the form of a domical 
structure on a large base. The drum itself answers to the 
vertical octagon (Fig. ioo, p. 186) on which the spire of Chartres 







Fig. 141. — Lantern of Salamanca. 

is set, the turrets correspond to the corner pinnacles, and the 
gabled bays to the same features, in the French design. The 
greater richness of ornamental details in the Spanish lantern 
would seem to indicate a later date than the twelfth century. 
Crockets on spires were hardly used in France before the 
thirteenth century, and it does not seem likely that such details 
could have been introduced in Spain at an earlier time; for 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN SPAIN 



there is no evidence of the existence of an independent and pro- 
gressive school of designers in Spain during the Middle Ages. 
The round arches which prevail throughout the composition 
show a conservative spirit, since the pointed form is used exclu- 
sively in the structural arches of the building which this lantern 
crowns. It is very possible that the lantern was begun in the 
twelfth century and finished in the thirteenth after crockets 
had come into use in the Gothic of France. 

The nave of San Vincent of Avila has pointed vaulting on 
transverse and diagonal ribs, which 
resembles the vaulting of Salamanca. 
The same excessive heaviness of con- 
struction is noticeable here except in 
the transverse ribs — which are of a 
single order, and are no larger than the 
diagonals. The diagonals themselves 
are, however, more massive than those 
of Salamanca, so that the whole rib 
system has an unusually ponderous 
effect. The vertical system of San 
Vincent dates from the early part 
of the twelfth century, and is Bur- 
gundian Romanesque in character. 
Its piers are composed like those of 
Vezelay, having a vigorous pilaster 
with an engaged shaft rising from 
the pavement. The adjustment of 
the lateral capitals to the diagonal 
ribs (Fig. 142) is happily managed in 
an unusual way by shaping their bells 
so that while fitting the square section 
of the pilaster their abaci are set di- 
agonally. These capitals may be contemporaneous with the 
vaulting, which probably dates from the latter part of the 
twelfth century. The vault thrusts are met by strong pilaster 
buttresses which rise through the triforium against the heavy 
clerestory wall. 

A different type of early pointed design in Spain is af- 
forded by the Church of Santa Maria do Irache near Estella, 
in the province of Navarre. The vaulting here has pointed 
u 




Fig. 142. 



290 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



transverse and diagonal ribs. The transverse ribs are very 
wide and are of a single order of plain square section, while the 
diagonal ribs are lighter and spring from a little lower level. 
As in the buildings before mentioned, there are no longitudinal 
ribs. The pier supports rise from the pavement and consist of 
coupled round shafts against a pilaster for the transverse rib, 
and a smaller shaft for each of the diagonals. The supports 
are well adjusted to the ribs of the vaulting — the capitals of 
the lateral shafts being set obliquely in conformity with the 
direction of the diagonals, and the abaci fitting well their re- 
spective loads. There are no triforium openings, and the 
clerestory has a blank wall space wholly embraced by the 
longitudinal arch of the vault. The ground-story archivolts 
are of one order without any profiling, and, like the transverse 
ribs, they are carried by coupled shafts against a pilaster. 
These coupled shafts are of frequent occurrence in the archi- 
tecture of Southern and Central Gaul, the regions which, as we 
have seen, seem to have furnished the principal models to Spain 
in the Middle Ages. 1 While the nave of Santa Maria de Irache 
has thus a primitive pointed organic system, it has not the least 
organic character externally. The clerestory wall is entirely 
unbroken by functional members. The apse of this church, like 
those of Salamanca and San Vincent, is of a primitive Roman- 
esque type with a heavy wall and a plain semidome. It is clearly 
of earlier date than the internal system of the nave ; and it may 
be that the apses of all these early pointed buildings are con- 
siderably older than the naves to which they are now attached. 
The cathedrals of Lerida, Tudela, and Tarragona, and the 
Abbey Church of Veruela, are nearly contemporaneous with 
the foregoing buildings. They have, also, substantially the 
same structural character — with pointed ribbed vaulting and 
massive piers functionally adjusted to the vaults. Coupled 
vaulting shafts, like those of Santa Maria de Irache, occur in 
all of them, the walls are heavy, the vault thrusts are met by 
pier buttresses only, and the external openings are generally 
round arched. Two of these buildings, Tudela and Veruela, 
have, however, features that are unusual in the early pointed 

1 Coupled vaulting shafts occur as far north as Poitou — as in the nave of 
Fontevrault; and they are not uncommon in early Norman churches — as in the 
extremities of the Abbaye-aux-Dames at Caen, and the nave of Gournay near Beauvais. 



ix POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN SPAIN 291 

buildings of Spain ; namely, apsidal vaults which have the primi- 
tive Gothic form. 1 In Tudela the apsidal wall is of the plainest 
Romanesque form, but it has four engaged vaulting shafts from 
which as many ribs spring and converge on the crown of the 
easternmost transverse arch. On these ribs the vault cells are 
turned in the Gothic manner. There are no wall ribs, however, 
but the end arches are stilted against the wall, and their crowns 
reach to nearly two-thirds of the vertical height of the vault. 
No openings occur in the upper wall, and the general effect, 
except in the vault itself, is necessarily very different from that 
even of the most primitive French Gothic apse. 

The apse of Veruela has an aisle with a pointed arcade 
and compound piers with vaulting shafts that rise from the 
pavement. The vault itself is like that of Tudela, but the 
wall above the arcade is of the most ponderous character, 
with no openings in the upper part of the clerestory. A very 
small, but widely splayed, round-arched opening is set, how- 
ever, in each bay about midway between the ground-story 
arches and the arches of the vault. Apsidal vaults of so much 
Gothic character as these appear to be rare at this time. It is 
noticeable that the early organic pointed systems of Spain are 
not generally carried out in the apses; and, so far as I know, 
they are never any more fully carried out than in these cases. 

The nave of the Church of Las Huelgas of Burgos, which 
was begun in 11 80, has a less organic internal system. It has 
regular quadripartite vaulting on a full set of ribs, but with 
no appreciable stilting or narrowing of the vaulting conoid 
against the pier. The surfaces are slightly domical, though 
the masonry of the lateral cells is nearly horizontal and in 
almost parallel courses. Single vaulting shafts, rising from 
the ground-story imposts, carry the heavy transverse ribs. The 
longitudinal ribs and the diagonals interpenetrate and rest on 
a corbel placed just above the vaulting capitals. The great 
archivolts are of two orders, of which the lower one has 
a plain square section, while the other is simply moulded 
with a roll and a gorge. No triforium has place in the 
scheme, and the clerestory is hcavilv walled in. and has a 
narrow, round-headed opening. Outside the clerestory has 

a I gather the above account of I.erida, Tudela, Tarragona, and Veruela from 
Street's Gothic Architecture in Spain. London, 1S69. 



292 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

a plain wall, with pier buttresses which terminate far below 
the cornice. 

It will be seen that buildings like the foregoing, while 
having some of the features of the transitional Gothic, are in 
reality little removed in character from Romanesque works. 
They do not exhibit the signs of a growing organic develop- 
ment. We do not find in them those experimental innovations 
and those awkward adjustments which betoken an original 
creative spirit. The earliest pointed and ribbed vaulting in 
Spain is executed with a sureness of knowledge and a degree 
of mechanical skill which seem to show that the builders had 
been instructed and were working under the guidance of well- 
known models. Evidences of original, artistic, and inventive 
capacity are not, indeed, wanting ; but this does not act inde- 
pendently in the Gothic direction. It is chiefly manifest in 
effective architectural composition of a kind which does not 
involve any fundamental structural novelty of design. The 
nearest approach to such novelty, so far as I know, occurs in 
the lantern of Salamanca. But even here the designer does 
no more structurally than to adapt members and adjustments, 
which had been invented elsewhere, to a new situation. This 
lantern, as we have seen, is composed after the manner of an 
early French spire, and its vault is merely in some measure 
like two primitive Gothic apses set together and placed over 
the crossing. 

Not only do we not find the pointed art of Spain quick 
with progressive life, but side by side with more advanced 
modes of design the older ones survive. Contemporaneously 
with such naves as those of Salamanca and Santa Maria de 
Irache, the Church of N. Sra. de la Sierra of Segovia, now in 
ruin, was built. In this church, though the pointed arch was 
used throughout the interior, both nave and aisles were cov- 
ered with barrel vaults strengthened by pointed transverse 
ribs. And the barrel vault occurs in some parts of buildings 
which are, for the most part, roofed with pointed groined 
vaults on ribs, as in the transept of Tarragona. 1 It thus 

1 Respecting this backwardness of pointed architecture in Spain, Mr. Street 
{Gothic Architecture in Spain, p. 354) remarks, referring to Lerida Cathedral: 
"The strange thing is that in a church which was building between 1203 and 1278 
we should find such strong evidences of knowledge of nothing but twelfth-century 



ix POrNTED CONSTRUCTION IN SPAIN 293 

appears that the early pointed architecture of Spain was not 
largely of local growth, but that it was almost wholly the 
result of influences derived from various parts of Gaul. And 
such influences may be easily accounted for by the generally 
close relations which existed between the two countries during 
the Middle Ages, and by the early incoming of the Cistercian 
and Cluniac monastic orders, bringing with them, as they did 
into other countries, the architectural traditions of their origi- 
nal homes. 

Nothing different appears in the Christian architecture of 
Spain until about the second quarter of the thirteenth century, 
when the fully developed Gothic art of France was reproduced 
in the great cathedrals of Burgos, Toledo, and Leon. The 
sudden appearance of such buildings can be explained only 
on the supposition that they were directly copied from the 
contemporaneous Gothic cathedrals of France, with more or 
less assistance from French architects and French workmen. 

The Cathedral of Burgos was begun in the year 122 1, one 
year later than Amiens. The vaulting of the apse and choir is 
altogether Gothic. The crowns of the arches of the clerestory 
openings reach far up into the vault, and these arches are of 
two orders, of which the uppermost forms the end rib of the 
vault. The longitudinal ribs of the choir vaulting are stilted to 
a great height — so that this essential feature of the Gothic 
system is fully developed. A longitudinal ridge rib is, however, 
included in the framework of the vaulting, and a few other 
minor departures from pure Gothic construction and Gothic 
forms occur in the system. The vaulting shafts rise grandly 
from the pavement, and are, in each pier, engaged with a large, 
though not ill-proportioned, round column. These shafts are 
not, however, so closely grouped as the best Gothic form de- 
mands, and there is some awkwardness in the adjustment of the 
diagonal rib and the shaft of the longitudinal rib together on 
the capital of the single lateral vaulting shaft. This part of the 
system is more logically arranged at Amiens, where there are 
five vaulting shafts compactly grouped. The composition of 
the pier of Burgos is logical on the ground story, but it is not 

art; ... it affords good evidence of the slow progress in this part of Spain of the 
developments which had at this time produced so great a change in the north of 
Europe." 



294 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

so artistically effective as are the finest French models ; for 
the great central columns are without capitals, and are merely 
banded by the mouldings of the abaci of the capitals which 
crown the shorter shafts of the great archivolts and of the 
aisle vaulting, and by a wider sculptured band reaching down 
to the necking of these smaller capitals. Hence the great 
compound capitals of the ground-story imposts, which are 
such striking and beautiful features of the French naves, are 
wanting here. 

The clerestory openings of the straight sides of the choir are 
small for a developed Gothic building, leaving some wall space 
on either side and above the clerestory string, but the triforium 
is largely developed and peculiar in design. It consists of an 
arcade of five small arches spanned by a great arch, with a 
tympanum which is pierced with five trefoiled circles. The 
whole design somewhat resembles the triforium of Bourges, and 
before it was disfigured by the flamboyant parapet and the 
ornamental additions to the shafts, which now mask much of its 
beauty, it must have been a stately and charming composition. 
The apse is unfortunately masked, below the level of the clere- 
story, by an incongruous retable of late and inelegant Renais- 
sance design. 

The external system corresponds to that of the interior. 
Flying buttresses of good Gothic form (Fig. 143) rise over the 
aisle roofs ; but the heads of their arches abut against the un- 
broken clerestory wall. The buttress system is thus lacking in 
one important member, namely, the pier buttress. 

The Cathedral of Toledo, designed on a grand scale with 
double aisles throughout, including the apse, is for the most part 
thoroughly Gothic also. The choir is unusually short, having 
only one rectangular bay, and the apse, in common with the 
apses of Burgos and Leon, has only five sides. This choir, 
also, is so encumbered with an enormous retable, and with 
screens and grilles, that the general system cannot be seen as a 
whole. The vaulting of the rectangular bay must have been 
remodelled some time after the middle of the thirteenth century. 
It has a different character from the vaulting of the nave and 
transepts, and from that of its own aisles. It is like English 
pointed vaulting, with Hemes and ticrcerons, and without any 
stilting of the longitudinal rib. But the system of the nave is 






POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN SPAIN 



295 



quite Gothic. Only the necessary ribs occur in its vaulting, the 
longitudinal rib is stilted, and the vault surfaces have the Gothic 
form perfectly developed. The transverse ribs are heavier than 
in French vaulting — a peculiarity of construction in Spain that 




Fig. 143. — Burgos. 



we have already noticed in the earlier pointed buildings of the 
country. The piers are composed like those of the choir of 
Burgos, with the improvement of an added shaft on each side 
of the ground-story portions, for the support of the first order 



296 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

of the double archivolts of the great arcade. The vaulting capi- 
tals have square abaci (they are round in Burgos) and are set 
in conformity with the directions of their respective ribs. The 
introduction of the second archivolt shaft gives the ground-story 
impost a better form than it has in Burgos. The main aisles, 
like those of Bourges and Beauvais, are of great height, and 
thus the space usually occupied by the triforium and clerestory 
is diminished. No triforium occurs here, however, and the 
clerestory opening is brought down to what, in a French build- 
ing, would be the triforium string. This opening is very large, 
and yet it does not wholly fill the space between the piers — a 
considerable strip of wall running up on either side which 
reaches to the crown of the arch. The double buttress system, 
required on account of the double aisles, is of true Gothic form, 
and it includes well-developed pier buttresses. 

The system of the nave of Leon differs from the systems of 
Burgos and Toledo in being much lighter throughout. In this 
respect it is in marked contrast with nearly all other Gothic 
buildings on Spanish soil. The general scheme resembles that 
of Amiens. The vaulting has no unnecessary ribs, its longitu- 
dinal arches are stilted, and the Gothic twist is pronounced. 
The supporting shafts are slender, are compactly grouped, and 
the three principal ones rise from the pavement, while those 
of the longitudinal ribs are brought down to the ground-story 
impost. The nave of Leon has single aisles, which are lower in 
proportion than those of Amiens. The ground-story pier is 
consequently short, and its core is a massive round column as in 
Toledo and Burgos. The triforium and clerestory are thus 
afforded ample height ; but, as in Amiens, the greater part of 
this height is taken by the clerestory, the opening of which 
appears originally to have filled the whole space between the 
piers, and its archivolt is both archivolt and longitudinal vault 
rib. The design follows Amiens further in having the clere- 
story mullions brought down through the triforium; and the 
triforium itself is composed as at Amiens. The spaces between 
the piers and the mullions nearest to them have been walled up 
at some period subsequent to that of the original construction in 
order to strengthen the system. 1 The buttress system has every 

1 The above account of the system of the nave of Leon is drawn from an illustra- 
tion given by Street, Gothic Architecture in Spain, p. 1 13. 



ix POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN SPAIN 297 

Gothic feature, 1 and the monument as a whole exhibits fewer 
structural departures from the best French models than either 
Burgos or Toledo. The apse is an almost exact reproduction 
of the apse of Reims, which is exceptional among the larger 
French cathedrals in having only five (instead of seven) sides, 
except that the abutments over the dividing walls of the radial 
chapels are not flying buttresses, but are solid walls each 
pierced with a narrow pointed arched opening. 

The later pointed buildings of Spain depart in fundamental 
points from Gothic form. The changes introduced do not, 
however, seem to be expressive of any peculiarly Spanish artis- 
tic tendencies; they are manifestly, as before, the result of 
imitation. But whereas the earlier pointed art of the country 
followed French models almost exclusively, these later ones 
have features that appear to have been derived from various 
other sources. I have already spoken of the partial likeness to 
English vaulting of that of the choir of Toledo (which on this 
account would appear to be of a later epoch than the rest of the 
building). The vaulting of the nave of the Cathedral of Sevilla 
affords another instance of such a likeness. There is no stilting 
of the longitudinal rib, a longitudinal ridge rib is inserted, and 
the clerestory is extensively walled in. 

But a more complete imitation of later English work occurs 
in the vaulting of the nave of the new Cathedral of Salamanca, 
dating from the early part of the sixteenth century. This 
vaulting has three tiercerons added to the rib system, which, 
together with the other ribs, are adjusted in the manner that is 
peculiar to English fan vaulting — so that the vaulting conoid 
has an approximately semicircular section. Other ornamental 
ribs, tracing fanciful patterns on the surfaces of the vaults, are 
also included. A feature derived from another source also 
appears in these later buildings of Sevilla and Salamanca, 
namely, a parapeted gallery in the clerestory, as in the Church 
of Sta. Croce and the Cathedral of Florence. 

The modes of enclosure in the developed Gothic of Spain 
follow the French models less completely than the larger struc- 
tural features. In the apse of Burgos, as we have seen, the 

1 The buttress system of the apse has every Gothic feature, including the pier 
buttress, but I am unable to make out clearly, from such photographs as 1 have 
been able to obtain, whether the pier buttress is included in the system of the nave. 



298 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

clerestory opening has archivolts of two orders, the upper 
one of which forms the end rib of the vault, and the opening, 
with its shafted jambs, fills the whole space between the piers; 
but in the straight sides of the choir there is considerable wall 
on either side of the opening. These openings are each 
divided by a mullion which branches into the simplest form of 
geometric tracery. In Toledo there is no triforium. The out- 
side roofs of the aisles are of very low pitch, so that the 
clerestory lights are brought far down, and their jambs and 
mullions reach to the still lower level of a string-course which is 
placed just over the crowns of the arches of the great arcade — 
which in a French building would be the triforium string. The 
openings are large, though they do not occupy the whole of the 
clerestory, and are divided with five mullions, geometric tracery, 
and a transom, a member which never occurs in pure Gothic 
design. 

Leon is the only one among the three great cathedrals of 
Spain in which the clerestories of both nave and apse were 
originally enclosed in a strictly Gothic manner with glazed 
openings which occupy the whole space between the piers and 
beneath the arch of the vault. The general tendency to dimin- 
ish the area of the opening may be due, as Mr. Street remarks, 1 
to the fact that in a sunny climate like that of Spain the vast 
openings of the French Gothic buildings would admit too much 
light. In so far as this is the case it shows that the Gothic 
style is itself unsuited to such a climate. And it would, indeed, 
seem that this style, being a creation of the Northern genius, 
and a natural outgrowth of conditions peculiar to the North, is 
hardly an appropriate one for a Southern people or a semi- 
tropical climate. 

The Spanish west front exhibits a variety of treatment; 
but in very few cases is the French form closely followed. 
The front of the early Church of San Pedro of Avila is notice- 
able as an entirely logical and effective design of simple char- 
acter. It is divided by buttresses into three parts corresponding 
to the divisions of the interior, and has an outline which follows 
the section of the building. The pointed arch does not occur 
in it, but a wheel window of noble design, and of considerable 
proportionate magnitude, framed in by a shafted arch of two 

1 Gothic Architecture in Spain, p. 112. 



POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN SPAIN 



299 



orders, fills the central bay over the great portal ; and each side 
bay has a plain wall broken only by an oculus at the triforium 
level. 

A different scheme occurs in the west front of San Vincent 
of Avila, where square towers terminate the aisles. The space 
between these towers does not (as in France it usually does) 
form the westernmost bay of the interior. It is treated as 
an open porch with a pointed arch of two orders, on jamb 
shafts engaged with pilasters, rising to the level of the vaulting 
of the interior. Over this arch is a plain story (apparently 
unfinished) with three rectangular blind compartments divided 
by shafting, and a round-arched opening in each of the lateral 
compartments. The enclosing wall of the nave is even with 
the inner sides of the towers, and has a round-arched portal 
of elaborate design which recalls those of the Burgundian 
Romanesque churches. 1 The towers have strong buttresses 
reaching to the level of the springing of the central arch — 
above which they are square in plan without buttresses. The 
north tower has two stories above the great central arch, the 
first of which is adorned on each face with coupled pointed 
blind arches of two shafted orders, and with three round 
shafts worked on each of the angles. The second, or belfry, 
story is plainer, and of apparently later design. The lower 
stories of the towers have each a pair of tall, shafted, blind, 
round arches embraced by a square-edged pointed arch on jambs 
of the same plain section without impost mouldings or capitals. 

The west front of Burgos is composed in the French man- 
ner, and consists of towers against the aisles with a central 
bay enclosing the nave and vigorous buttresses accenting the 
upright divisions. It has, however, been extensively disfigured 
by alterations at various epochs, so that its general aspect now 
must be very different from that which it originally presented. 
But the greater part of the design, above the ground story and 
beneath the spires, appears to retain its original character, 
and conforms with the French Gothic of the second half of the 
thirteenth century. The existing ground story is without char- 
acter or interest. It appears to be an alteration of a late epoch, 
but it is, for the most part, without features that give any clear 

1 Cf. Enlart: " Les Origines de l'Architecture Gothique en Espagne et en 
Portugal," Bulletin Archiologique, 1894, p. 12. 



3 oo GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

indication of the precise period. It consists of an even wall of 
great thickness advanced beyond the faces of the buttresses, 
and broken by three very plain splayed pointed portals. Its 
solid construction suggests that it may have been erected to 
strengthen the facade. The great rose of the central bay is 
spanned by a pointed arch, as at Reims, and the remainder of 
the front resembles the best French models of the period so 
closely as to need no further description. 

The facade of Toledo appears not to have been completed 
in Gothic times. Above the late Gothic ground story — which 
extends across the nave and the two inner aisles — nothing of 
a Gothic nature remains, if anything of the kind ever existed. 
The outer aisles end in square towers which advance beyond 
the face of the main front, and have features derived from the 
Gothic style mingled with Renaissance and modern elements. 
The north tower is in five stories crowned with a florid spire, 
while the south tower does not rise above its basement upon 
which is set a modern octagonal dome on a high drum. The 
three great portals between the towers, though hardly earlier 
than the fourteenth century, have the character of French 
work of that date. 

The western front of Leon dates from the thirteenth cen- 
tury, and the original scheme seems not to have included any 
towers. A narrow porch extends across the whole width of 
the front proper, and has three great pointed arches with 
two narrow and acutely pointed openings between them. 
These five arches are carried on four free-standing piers and 
two massive projecting walls which, like antes, enclose the 
ends of the porch. The wall above the arches is crowned with 
a parapet. This porch, or narthex, shelters three great splayed 
portals, enriched with sculpture which open into the nave and 
aisles. Behind the porch the enclosing wall of the nave rises 
between buttresses. An open arcade of four pointed arches 
with tracery extends across this wall on the triforium level ; and 
a great wheel, under an unadorned pointed arch, fills the clere- 
story space. The work above this is of the Renaissance 
period, and does not, therefore, need to be described here. 
Vast square and heavily buttressed towers of late Gothic 
design are set out beyond the aisles — giving the whole front a 
width much greater than that of the main body of the building. 



ix POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN SPAIN 301 

The spaces above the aisles, on either side of the nave, are left 
open, and are each spanned by two flying buttresses. The 
whole composition, though largely made up of unrelated parts, 
and in some parts widely departing from the usual Gothic 
scheme, has, nevertheless, a very majestic aspect. 

The early Spanish east ends externally have the Romanesque 
apsidal form, while in those of the later monuments the fea- 
tures of the French Gothic apses are reproduced on a simplified 
plan, usually, as we have already seen, having only five instead 
of seven sides. 

The transepts of the twelfth century are of rectangular 
form with plain walls, in some cases, as in San Vincent of Avila, 
having angle buttresses around which the cornice breaks in the 
manner that is common in Italy ; while in other instances, as in 
Santa Maria de Irache, there are no buttresses. In the cathe- 
drals of the thirteenth century the facades of the transepts re- 
semble those of the French Gothic, though in some cases with 
additions — as at Burgos, where a great arcaded screen with a 
level cornice crowns the facade and rises above the low pitched 
roof in the place which in France would be occupied by a gable. 
Vigorous buttresses with offsets strengthen the angles, and a 
fine-wheel window, with geometric tracery, opens through the 
clerestory wall, while a large, richly sculptured portal occupies 
the ground story, the wall of the triforium remaining blank. 

In the Cathedral of Leon we get a noble transept end of 
thoroughly Gothic design. 1 This transept having aisles, its 
facade has three bays on the ground story with a richly 
ornamented portal in each. No towers terminate these aisles, 
and hence the flying buttresses over them become conspicuous 
features of the design. A shafted arcade of four bays occupies 
the triforium space in the central bay, and a large circular 
wheel set in a triangular panel pierces the wall of the clere- 
story. Over all is a steep crocketed gable pierced with a small 
oculus flanked by pinnacles which cap the buttresses. This gable 
corresponds to nothing behind it, since the roof is of a very low 
pitch, and thus, while it would be an appropriate crowning for 
a building with a steep roof, it is without meaning here. 

1 This transept facade has recently been rebuilt, and I do not know how closely 
the architect has followed the original design; but it has, for the most part, the 
character of a thirteenth-century Gothic composition. 



3 02 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



Towers and spires, like west fronts and transept ends, are 
treated in Spain in a variety of ways. The towers are often, 
like French towers, compactly incorporated with the main body 
of the building — as in San Vincent of Avila and Burgos ; but 
they are not seldom semi-detached — as in San Isidoro and the 
Cathedral of Leon. The early west towers of San Vincent and 
the late ones of Burgos have already been described. The 
tower of San Isidoro is noticeable as a noble design of the 
eleventh, or early twelfth, century, strongly resembling the 
western tower of Morienval in the Ile-de-France. It rises, 
with slight set-offs and shallow angle buttresses, to the height of 
three stories, with nearly unbroken walls, and is then crowned 
with a belfry which has two large round-arched openings, each of 
three shafted orders, and a slender shaft worked on each angle. 
The existing roof appears to be a modern one of timber and slates 
in the form of a low pyramid on a square base. Towers of devel- 
oped Gothic character, with large openings and set-off buttresses, 
appear to be rare in Spain. Those of Burgos seem to be excep- 
tional. The west towers of Leon, which are of late construc- 
tion, have pronounced buttresses ; but in the north one there 
are no set-offs, and no openings below the main cornice, while 
above this the design is almost as plain as beneath. The whole 
aspect of this tower is bold and fortress-like. The buttresses of 
the south tower are treated in a more Gothic manner. They 
have set-offs, gabled panelling, and pinnacles, and the openings 
are more numerous and larger ; though the lower portions still 
have a fortress-like character. The one completed tower of 
Toledo is of a post-Gothic epoch, though it has some late Gothic 
details. Its walls and buttresses are nearly plumb from the 
ground to the base of the spire. It is thus more like Italian 
than like French towers, though its proportions are heavier 
than those which are common in Italy. 

True Gothic spires appear never to have been built in Spain. 
The earlier existing tower roofs are low, and usually not of stone. 
All Spanish spires, so far as I know, were of late construction. 
The north tower of Leon has a low stone spire with pinnacles at 
its base. But the only spires that have anything like the Gothic 
outline are, like those of Burgos and the south tower of Leon, 
imitations of late German designs of ornamental open stone- 
work. These are curiously ill adjusted to the towers from 



ix POINTED CONSTRUCTION IN SPAIN 303 

which they rise, being too small at the base to cover the towers 
well, having no transitional drums, and no effective subordinate 
features leading the eye upward. The pointed architecture of 
Spain is thus in various ways different from that of France, 
and what Gothic character it has is plainly borrowed from the 
French source. 



CHAPTER X 

GOTHIC PROFILES IN FRANCE 

We may now consider the profiling, that is, the lines of the 
sections of mouldings and other small members, of the Gothic 
style, beginning with the forms of capitals and bases the out- 
lines of which fall properly under the general head of Profiles. 
The other members to be examined under this head are chiefly 
string-courses, archivolts, vault ribs, and tracery. The profiles 
given to these members are the result of functional adaptation 
to the uses they have to serve, and are, at the same time, an 
expression of that fine aesthetic feeling which governed the 
Gothic designer in every part of his work. 

In arched systems of architecture the primary function of the 
capital is obviously to prepare the column which it crowns to 
carry a load more bulky than itself, and one that is usually 
of a different form. Where the superimposed load is not so 
large as to overhang the face of the shaft, the capital has, 
as M. Viollet-le-Duc has shown, 1 little structural function. In 
the arcades of primitive buildings the impost is often hardly 
more bulky than the column itself, as in the court of the palace 
of Diocletian at Spalato, in the Basilica of Maxentius and Con- 
stantine, and in some of the early basilican churches. The Roman 
builders who first sprung arches from the heads of columns did 
not perceive the necessity of changing the form of the capital 
(which had been designed to support merely the classic entabla- 
ture) in order to suit it to new structural conditions. The earliest 
development of a form of shaft and capital suitably adapted 
to an arched system of construction appears to have been 
accomplished by the Byzantine architects in the arcades of 
the apsidal alcoves of St. Sophia of Constantinople, already re- 
ferred to on page 33. In these (Fig. 144) classic forms and 
proportions are wholly thrown aside as no longer adapted to 
the conditions that had to be met. The column, having now 

1 S.v. Chapitenu, p. 481. 
3°4 



GOTHIC PROFILES IN FRANCE 



305 



to carry a bulky load of square form, instead of a narrow archi- 
trave, is crowned with a capital of wholly new character. It 
is a curious combination of elements derived from all three of 
the classic types, modified and fused together in a creative way, 
and not a mere adjunction of parts taken without alteration from 
different forms, as was the Roman composite capital. The 
Doric element appears in the convex outline and in the thick 




FIG. 144. — St. Sophia, Constantinople. 

square abacus ; the Ionic in the volutes, which are on two 
opposite faces only, and are connected on the other sides by the 
bolsters, or cushion-shaped features, that are peculiar to the Ionic 
capital ; and the Corinthian in the height of the member. The 
height was needed to gain the necessary magnitude of abacus 
surface without producing an unsafe and unsightly inclination 
of the outline. The square form of abacus was needed to tit 
the square load, and its thickness was required to give strength 
to its overhanging angles. The capital thus formed is a struc- 
tural member of great importance, providing a secure bed for the 

X 



3 o6 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

load with which it is charged. The general outline of the entire 
column is no less admirable from an aesthetic point of view than 
it is from that of functional adaptability. The shaft itself, which 
may be an ancient one, has the slight taper of the best classic 
shafts, and an entasis of perfectly Greek refinement. It is 
interesting to find the Greek genius again active, and, under 
changed conditions, creating appropriately new architectural 
forms which are no less logical and beautiful than were those 
of classic times. An instructive lesson may here be drawn from 
the work of the later Greeks. The practice of using classic 
elements in connection with modes of building that widely 
depart in principle from those of classic antiquity finds no 
support in Byzantine Greek art. 

The logic and the artistic skill thus displayed by the Byzan- 
tine designers in the shaping and adjustment of the capital were 
not followed by the builders of Western Europe until after the 
eleventh century. Marked traces of the Byzantine influence 
occur, however, in some of the basilican churches of Rome ; and 
among them are many curious imitations of the form of impost 
that appears to have been first developed in Constantinople. 
Of these the arcades of the Church of Sta. Maria in Cosmedin, 
dating from the close of the eighth century, afford interesting 
instances (Fig. 145). This church, like most early churches in 
Italy, was constructed largely of materials gathered from the 
ruins of more ancient buildings. Where the forms of columns, 
capitals, and bases, thus found ready to their hands, were not 
well suited to their needs, the early Christian Roman builders 
employed such devices as they could to adapt them. The 
Corinthian capital represented in Fig. 145 was not well suited 
to the support of the bulky load laid upon it. Its abacus is too 
thin to carry the overhanging weight, and its curved sides do 
not follow the square impost section. Accordingly a square, flat 
stone is laid upon it, forming a rude, supplementary abacus, 
which, however, is hardly thick enough to satisfy the eye. The 
column to which this capital is adjusted is much more slender 
than the one for which it must have been designed ; but, while 
it thus fits awkwardly (the base of the capital overhanging the 
neck moulding), it is large enough for its present function, and 
the whole impost, though a patchwork of unrelated fragments, 
is not bad in its general outline, and substantially approaches 



GOTHIC PROFILES IN FRANCE 



307 



the form of the Byzantine impost (Fig. 144). A later form of 
Byzantine capital which has a thick supplementary abacus, of 
smaller superficial dimensions than the first, — a type much 
employed at Ravenna, and occurring in the arcades of San 
Stefano Rotondo of Rome, — does not concern us here because 
it is not a type that had influence on the subsequent architec- 
ture of the Middle Ages. 




Sta. Maria in Cosmedin. 



From the time of Justinian to the eleventh century hardly 
any architectural improvements were, as we have before seen, 
anywhere made. In the Lombard Romanesque a halting pro- 
cedure in respect to the capital is manifest. The shafts of the 
piers of St. Ambrogio of Milan are, in some cases, almost as 
large as the loads which they carry; and while the capital, 
which is a rude combination of Roman and Byzantine elements, 
is well shaped to suit such conditions, it has little other use 



3 o8 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



than to adjust the round section of the shaft to the square form of 
the load. In the early Norman Romanesque this form of impost 
is frequent, as in Fig. 146, an engaged shaft of the north aisle 
of Jumieges. Better forms than this, however, were produced 
at this epoch, especially in the Ile-de-France, where, in the 
aisles of Morienval, capitals occur (Fig. 16, p. 51) which so 
closely resemble those of St. Sophia as to confirm the belief 
that a traditional, and perhaps even a direct, Byzantine influ- 
ence was felt here very 
early in the Roman- 
esque development. 

In France, after the 
eleventh century, the 
practice of giving to 
the capital a spreading 
form to carry a load 
more bulky than the 
shaft became practically 
constant ; and the degree 
of expansion varied con- 
siderably, according to 
circumstances. Where 
compact stone for mono- 
lithic shafts could be ob- 
tained, they were often 
made very slender, and 
yet were sufficiently 
strong to bear the weight 
that might be gathered on a broad abacus. This use of 
slender monolithic shafts and columns led to the production of 
the distinctly Gothic type of capital, early examples of which 
occur in the apse of the Cathedral of Senlis (Fig. 147). The 
general outline and proportions of the whole impost of Senlis are 
remarkably similar to those of St. Sophia (Fig. 144). Students 
of mediaeval architecture have hardly hitherto enough observed 
the extent and the importance of the structural innovations 
(apart from those connected with the development of the 
dome on pendentives) that were made by the Byzantine archi- 
tects, or the cumulative influence of these innovations on the 
arts of Western Europe, and more especially on the rising art 




FIG. 146. — Jumieges. 



GOTHIC PROFILES IN FRANCE 



309 



of France in the twelfth century. But so important were these 
innovations, and so great their influence, that I believe it hardly 
too much to say that the Gothic style was made possible by 
them. The domical groined vault and the expanded capital are 
forms without which Gothic architecture could not exist. But 
the capital of Senlis, while exhibiting so much resemblance to 




Fig. 147. — Senlis. 

that of St. Sophia, is nevertheless not precisely similar. It 
shows modifications that adapt it to the Gothic functions and 
the Gothic taste. It is not merely a capital of Byzantine form 
inserted in a transitional Gothic building. The capital of St. 
Sophia would not do as well in its place. The abacus is further 
thickened, giving more resistance to the overhanging parts, while 
the bell is correspondingly diminished in height, and has a concave 



3i° 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



outline. The resulting form is remarkable for elegance as well 
as for functional expression. The capitals of the sanctuary of 
Noyon (Fig. 148) are equally admirable in expression and elegant 
in form. The bell is here much deeper, and the concave profile 
is more distinctly marked. Of a somewhat more advanced, and 
richer, type, illustrating the purest and most refined Gothic art, 




Fig. 148. — Noyon. 

are the superb capitals of the sanctuary of St. Leu d'Esserent. 
The supporting columns are, in all these cases, monolithic, 
and hence they are slender in proportion to the bulk of the 
load with which they are charged. Where the columns are not 
monolithic, but are built up of coursed masonry, their diameter 
is necessarily greater in relation to their height, and the capital 
is proportionately less expanded. The intermediate piers, for 



GOTHIC PROFILES IN FRANCE 



3" 



instance, of the choir of Senlis are round columns built in 
courses ; and they are consequently much larger, and have capi- 
tals which are considerably less spreading, than those of the sanc- 
tuary, as may be seen in the perspective elevation (Fig. 40, p. 96). 




Fig. 149. — Triforium of Choir, Paris. 

The round columns of the ground story of the Cathedral of 
Paris are, like those of the choir of Senlis, built up in courses, 
and the expansion of their capitals is consequently slight ; but 
in the triforium of the choir the shafts of the arcades are com- 
paratively slender monoliths, and their capitals (Fig. 149) are 



3 I2 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



more spreading ; while in the triforium of the nave the shafts 
are still more slender, and the capitals (Fig. 150) are very much 
expanded. 

In the early Gothic the volume of the load may, in some situa- 
tions, appear smaller than that of the supporting shaft. A case 




Fig. 150. — Triforium of Nave, Paris. 

of this may be observed in the apsidal aisle of St. Germer 
(Fig. 27, p. 73), where the diagonal rib appears smaller than 
the shaft which carries it. A side view will generally show, 
however, that the rib is deeper than the shaft. In advanced 
Gothic it is not uncommon to find imposts in subordinate posi- 
tions in which the load and the support are of the same magni- 



x GOTHIC PROFILES IN FRANCE 313 

tude and the same form, as, for example, in tracery of large 
openings. In these cases the capital has no real structural 
function, but is used ornamentally, with a pleasant structural 
suggestiveness. There is no impropriety in this. The eye 
readily perceives that the capital is used to harmonize the 
tracery with the larger structural elements. 

Another principle governing the forms of Gothic capitals 
appears to be that the thickness of the abacus is in proportion 
to the expansion of the bell. This principle is subject to ex- 
ceptions, but I believe it will generally be found to hold. Thus 
in the capital (Fig. 150), where the expansion reaches about 
its maximum, the thickness of the abacus is equal to nearly 
half the total height. In the capital (Fig. 149), where the ex- 
pansion is considerably less, the abacus is correspondingly thin- 
ner. The capitals of the triforium of Laon (Fig. 151) have about 
the same spread as those of the choir of Paris, and the thickness 
of their abaci is in nearly the same proportion. But in the mas- 
sive and slightly expanded capitals of the ground-story columns 
(as in those of Paris, Fig. 61, p. 129) the abaci are compara- 
tively thin. The constructive principle involved is, of course, 
that the slightly expanded capital presents no projecting parts 
that are not, when crowned with a thin abacus, abundantly strong 
for the weight with which they are charged ; while those of the 
more spreading form would be weak where they overhang if 
they were not surmounted by a thick crowning member. The 
principle is not, however, as I have just said, always strictly 
carried out. In the Cathedral of Senlis, for instance, the less 
spreading capitals of the choir and nave have abaci hardly, if at 
all, thinner than the much-spreading ones of the sanctuary. B_ut 
in early buildings, like Senlis, the Gothic principles were yet 
undeveloped in many details. 

In the Romanesque period the abacus and the bell were 
sometimes wrought out of separate stones, as in the capitals of 
the aisle of Morienval (Fig. 16, p. 51), where a joint may be 
seen between these two parts. But in the Gothic monuments 
the entire capital, including the neck moulding (which in the 
classic orders is worked on the shaft, and not on the capital, as 
in Sta. Maria in Cosmedin, Fig. 145, p. 307), is carved out of one 
block. The profile of the capital thus includes the abacus and 
the neck moulding. 



314 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



In the early Gothic the abacus is usually square in plan, 
in conformity with the section of the load, which is usually 
square until after the first quarter of the thirteenth century. 
But when in the more advanced stages of Gothic design the 
archivolt sections became polygonal, the plan of the abacus 
assumed a corresponding shape, as in the upper portions of 




FIG. 151. — Triforium of Laon. 



the nave of Amiens. The round abacus hardly occurs in the 
early, and early fine, Gothic of France, except occasionally 
where a compound impost renders it suitable, as in the great 
piers of Paris (Fig. 59, p. 127), and in subordinate places, as in 
the jambs and dividing members of the clerestory openings of 
Amiens, where the impost sections are round. 1 

1 In Normandy the round abacus is of frequent occurrence in the structural parts 
of the architecture of the early thirteenth century.' 



GOTHIC PROFILES IN FRANCE 



315 



The profiling of the abacus is comparatively, simple, though 
a considerable variety of effect is obtained by different com- 
binations of the simple mouldings. Starting from the plain bev- 
elled stone of the eleventh century (Fig. 16, p. 51), the mouldings 
of the early Gothic abacus are but slightly salient, as in the 
profiles of St. Evremond of Creil (Fig. 1 52, a) and of the Cathedral 
of Senlis (Fig. 152, b). They gradually become more pronounced, 
as in the triforium of the nave of Paris (Fig. 152, c, d, e, and/), 
but never exhibit very salient members alternating with deep 
hollows, as in later Gothic design. The mouldings are rarely, 
if ever, of uniform character throughout an entire building, 
and they frequently vary a good deal in a single arcade. 
While the same profile may be often substantially repeated, 
it frequently happens that several different ones are found 
in the abaci of a given series of capitals. Thus in the 




Fig. 152. 



north triforium of the nave of Paris, where there are in all 
fourteen capitals, the four different profiles, c, d, e, f (Fig. 
152), occur. Of these, counting from the transept, the pro- 
file c occurs in the first, second, third, fourth, and eighth ; 
the profile d in the fifth, sixth, ninth, and tenth ; the profile e 
in the seventh; and the profile/ in the eleventh, twelfth, thir- 
teenth, and fourteenth. Where the same form is repeated, more 
or less difference in the proportions of the parts will generally 
be found. The work was wrought largely with a free hand ; 
and though beautifully finished, it rarely exhibits any absolute 
mechanical precision. The same member may have different 
thicknesses at different parts of its length, and the lines are thus 
hardly ever perfectly straight or precisely parallel. The exe- 
cution has a character and a charm akin to that of free-hand 
drawing ; it has nothing of the dry precision of work wrought 
with rigid exactness by rule and compass. 




3 i6 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

The upper member of the early French abacus has a square 
section, and this is retained until about the end of the first 
quarter of the thirteenth century. After this it assumes a 
curved profile, more or less like that shown at A in Fig. 153 from 
the west front of Amiens Cathedral, or like B from the trif orium 
of the same building. 

The outline of the bell is almost without exception a fine 
Corinthianesque curve. Of the capitals of the ancient orders 
the Corinthian only influenced to any considerable extent the 
art of the Middle Ages. Derived from the Roman type and 

logically modified in part under 
Byzantine influence, the Corin- 
thianesque capital of the later 
Romanesque builders was an 
improvement on its prototype, 
while that of the Gothic artists 
of the close of the twelfth cen- 
tury was further developed in 
its functional character and 
refined in its profile. This 
FlG type is one that admits of 

almost endless changes which 
adapt it to the varied conditions that Gothic capitals have 
to meet. The circular form of the bell is adjusted to the 
square of the abacus by crockets which take the place of the 
classic volutes and afford support to the projecting angles of 
the abacus — as in Figs. 149 and 150. The French Gothic 
capitals of what may be called the early fine period — i.e. the 
last quarter of the twelfth century — are among the most beau- 
tiful objects ever produced by human art. For structural 
adaptation, joined with subtle grace of contour, they are, in 
fact, quite unequalled by those of any other age or style. 

It does not come within the scope of this work to fol- 
low out the later transformations of the Gothic capital; but 
it may be remarked that during the course of the thirteenth 
century certain modifications of its form were introduced which, 
though not improvements, were logical adaptations to changed 
conditions, and which sometimes produced results that have 
much merit. These modifications were consequent upon changes 
that had been wrought in the profiles of the archivolts and vault 




x GOTHIC PROFILES IN FRANCE 317 

ribs, giving them a polygonal section. Arch sections of other 
than square form had sometimes been employed from the earliest 
times. But these forms, as we shall presently see, were very 
simple and did not lead to any change in the shape of the abacus. 
When, however, more complicated mouldings were introduced, 
and had become general, the form of the abacus was changed 
correspondingly. The bell remained substantially unaltered, but 
the absence of the salient angles of the abacus removed the 
need of supporting crockets; and though crockets continued 
to form parts of the design, they were now only ornamental 
features. Having no functional use or expression, they were 
often placed, not under the angles of the polygonal abacus, but 
under its alternate sides, as in Fig. 154, a capital from one of the 
chapels of the choir of Amiens. It is true that the crockets of 
Gothic capitals had always had a largely ornamental purpose ; 
and that, together with those under the corners of the abacus 
which had a functional use, there had been others, of smaller 
size, alternating with the main ones, and placed lower down on 
the bell where they could have only an ornamental value — as 
in Fig. 149. These, however, were subordinate features, carry- 
ing out the general scheme of enrichment in a manner that har- 
monized with the structural form. The capital (Fig. 154) still has 
a good deal of functional expression. The beautiful foliated 
crockets are compactly gathered under the abacus, and the 
whole outline is in keeping with the structural office of the 
member. This character was generally retained in the earlier 
types of capitals with polygonal and round abaci ; but at a later 
period the crocket was over-developed, and finally became an 
extravagant and unmeaning excrescence. In imposts where 
such capitals occur, the load is apt to be comparatively small, 
and the abacus is accordingly diminished, and is often made 
very thin. Even these capitals sometimes have considerable 
beauty, and the crockets are often designed with much grace 
and variety ; but they are wanting in that functional expression 
which marks the best capitals of early Gothic art. 

The forms of bases are hardly less interesting than those of 
capitals. The Gothic base is, as before remarked, always some 
modification of the Attic base of classical antiquity. Bases 
closely resembling those of the Erechtheum and the Choragic 
Monument of Lysicrates may be found in Gothic buildings; 



3i8 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



but the proportions of the parts are more or less changed in 
conformity with the new conditions, and the profiling becomes, 
in some cases, even more refined and beautiful than those of 
ancient times. The Gothic shaft having to carry more weight 
in proportion to its size than the classic column, and being more 
subject to chances of lateral movement, required a firmer and 
stronger base. The round ancient base resting on its stylobate 




■mi 



I ' /*s mm^ 







FIG. 154. — Amiens. 



without the interposition of a plinth, or with a plinth of shallow 
proportions, suited perfectly well the simple conditions of classic 
construction ; but the Gothic base had to be both deeper and 
more spreading. For if a heavily charged slender column, 
under conditions which render it liable to more or less disturb- 
ance of its equilibrium, be placed upon a thin plinth, sooner or 
later some fracture of the plinth will be likely to occur. But 



GOTHIC PROFILES IN FRANCE 



319 



if the plinth be thickened, it will remain more safe. If, in addi- 
tion, a second stone, also of considerable thickness, be placed 
beneath the first, a secure footing for the column will be ob- 
tained. Gothic bases are constructed in this manner ; they are 
always thick, and in most cases are composed of at least two 
blocks of stone. In the base, as well as in the capital, the first 
innovations seem to have been made by the Byzantine archi- 
tects. The bases of the shafts whose capitals (Fig. 144) we 
have just examined have the form shown in Fig. 155, which is 
a wide departure from the ancient base, and, for an arched system 
of construction, it is an improvement tending in the direction of 
the Gothic base. The lower torus is here considerably deep- 




FlG. 155. — St. Sophia. 

ened, and is placed upon a plinth of unprecedented thickness. 
Early Romanesque bases are naturally less elegant in profile 
than those of St. Sophia (which exhibit the subtle artistic skill 
of the later Greek designers), but they are usually composed of 
the same elements. In St. Ambrogio of Milan, for instance, 
the lower torus is much less salient, and a narrower plinth is 
used, so that the entire base has a less expanded form — as 
we have already seen is the case with the capital also. In 
early Norman Romanesque art, as in the nave of the Abbaye- 
aux-Hommes, rudely shaped bases frequently occur in which 
all trace of the Attic profile is lost; but in the later Roman- 
esque of the Ile-de-France, as in St. Etienne of Beauvais 
(Fig. 156), the Attic profiling is distinct, though the contours 
are rude. The parts, however, already exhibit Gothic proper- 



320 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



tions, and the plinths are of remarkable height. This profile 
is varied in the bases of St. Martin des Champs (Fig. 157); 
and other variations occur, with increasing elegance of contour, 
in the base profiles of early Gothic monuments — as in those of 




t 



Fig. 156. Fig. 157. Fig. 158. 

the nave of Senlis (Fig. 158), and the nave of St.-Germer-de-Fly 
(Fig. 159); while in the choir of Paris (Fig. 160), and in many 
other contemporaneous buildings, very subtle profiles are found, 
in some of which the lower torus is flattened with exquisite 
effect. 



GOTHIC PROFILES IN FRANCE 



321 



A conspicuous feature of the early Gothic base is the 
griff e or angle spur. This is an ornamental projection from 
the lower torus covering the angles of the square plinth. It 
assumes a great variety of fanciful and beautiful forms during 
the entire early Gothic period. In Fig. 160, 
from the choir of Paris, the corners of the 
plinth are cut off, leaving little room for the 
griffe. Where this is not the case, this fea- 
ture becomes more developed, as in the 
exquisite example (Fig. 161) from the nave 
of Reims. While it can hardly be said that 
the griffe has a really constructive function, 
it nevertheless has a functional expression 
giving the lower torus an apparent grasp 
of the plinth as well as an appropriate orna- 
ment. This feature appears first, I believe, 
in the bases of the Lombard Romanesque 
designers. It does not occur on the bases 
of St. Sophia, nor, I think, in the later 
Byzantine architecture. But rudimentary 
forms of it appear on the rudely executed 
bases of St. Ambrogio of Milan. In the 
Northern Romanesque, however, it is rare. 
It does not occur in either of the abbey 
churches of Caen, nor in the nave of Vezelay, 
nor in St. Etienne of Beauvais ; but in the 
apse of Poissy it is superbly developed, and 
in the early Gothic churches it is rarely 
absent. 

The base, like the capital, is more spread- 
ing in proportion as the shaft is diminished 
in bulk; and the profiles of the bases of small 
arcades are often among the most exquisite 
objects which the genius of the Gothic archi- Fu . 159> ~~ 

tects produced. Of such bases none are finer 
than those of the triforium of the nave of Paris, of which 
Fig. 162 is a profile and Fig. 163 a perspective view. It will 
be seen that the griffe on the nearest corner, unhappily broken, 
differs from the others — affording an instance of the variety 
of treatment which characterizes Gothic design. 

Y 



3 22 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



Toward the end of the twelfth century the plinth began to 
be diminished in magnitude so that the lower torus overhung 
its sides — as in the profile (Fig. 164) in the choir of Chartres. 
The salient angles were thus made smaller, and the griffe was 
usually omitted ; though it was sometimes included, being 
wrought on a smaller scale. Occasionally the angles of these 
smaller plinths are rounded off, as in the small base (Fig. 165) 




from the choir of Soissons ; and at length the plinth becomes 
octagonal, and sometimes round, so as to present no angles that 
project beyond the torus — as in the westernmost piers of Paris 
(Fig. 166), and the piers of the nave of Amiens (Fig. 167). In 
these cases the griffe necessarily disappears altogether. While 
the diminished octagonal plinth has the advantage of taking up 
less room on the pavement, and of presenting no sharp angles, — 
dangerous, or inconvenient, to passing crowds, — it is less satis- 



GOTHIC PROFILES IN FRANCE 



323 



factory than the former type in all other respects. The Gothic 
base of the middle of the twelfth century, with its square plinth 
and angle spurs, is unequalled in architectural beauty by those 
of the later character. 




Fig. 163. — Paris. 

The mouldings of the bases of Amiens are not so subtle 
in profile (Fig. 166) as those of the earlier period usually are ; 
but they exhibit one interesting peculiarity — that, namely, of 
an extra thickness given to the lower torus of the groat cen- 
tral column. The mouldings are thus proportioned to the 



3?4 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



magnitudes of their respective shafts in a manner corresponding 
to that in which the several capitals of the head of the pier are 
proportioned to the same shafts, as remarked above (p. 128), of 
the compound pier of Paris. 

The development of the profiles of string-courses in the 
Gothic of France forms one of the most interesting minor 
branches of our subject. The external string was, during the 
eleventh century, very simple in form, and had usually a flat, 
though sometimes a sloping, upper surface. The profiles 





L 



Fig. 164. 



Fig. 165. 



(Fig. 168) from the small Romanesque Church of Nogent-les- 
Vierges, near Senlis, sufficiently illustrate their general char- 
acter. In the earlier transitional buildings the same forms were 
retained — as at A, Fig. 169, from St. Evremond at Creil. But 
the early Gothic builders soon devised changes which better 
adapted the string to the exigencies of a Northern climate ; and 
at the same time converted it into one of the most pleasing 
architectural features. The flat upper surface was objectionable 
because it afforded lodgement to snows in winter, and caused 
incessant spattering against the walls in times of rain. 1 It was 
seen that it must be avoided. Innovations were accordingly 
made, an early instance of which occurs on the exterior of the 



1 Cf. Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Bandeau, p. 105. 



GOTHIC PROFILES IN FRANCE 



325 



choir of the Cathedral of Senlis shown at B (Fig. 169). Here 
the profile (A) of St. Evremond of Creil is modified by a sloping 
upper surface ; while a second, deeper course, with a steeply 
sloping side, is placed above it — the upper wall being in re- 
treat of that of the ground story. 1 This must be one of the first 
instances of those progressive changes which led to the forma- 
tion of the distinctively Gothic dripstone. The sloping upper 




Fig. 166. 

surface had, indeed, been sometimes given before this time, as, 
for instance, at Morienval (C, Fig. 169); but before the middle 
of the twelfth century it is rare. We may not be able to trace 
all of the successive steps of transformation, but before the 

1 This string is not now visible from the exterior, it having been removed, in the 
course of subsequent alterations, from those portions of the wall which are still exposed 
to view. But in the space over the vaults of the more recently constructed chapels 
on the south side of the choir, east of the old sacristy, portions of it are still in place. 



326 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

close of the twelfth century the form A (Fig. 170), from the 
nave of St. Pierre of Chartres, was reached. An important 
function of the Gothic string-course is to prevent continuous 
washing of the walls in times of heavy rains. 
In order to do this effectively it must be so 
formed as to throw off the water quickly 
and completely. The form B (Fig. 169) of 
the string of Senlis, though an improvement 
on that of St. Evremond (A in the same 
figure), is still imperfectly adapted to this 
function ; for its slope is a broken one, and 
the form of the under surface is such that 
water may trickle backwards and wash the 
roll moulding beneath continually. But in 
a string profiled like that of St. Pierre (A, 
Fig. 170) the drip is effectually cut off when 
it reaches the sharp edge formed by the deep 
undercutting. 

Early in the thirteenth century this latter 
form was amplified — as at B (Fig. 170), the 
profile of the cornice of the ground story of 
the cathedral of Amiens, where the large 
hollow added beneath affords a sheltered 
place for foliate sculpture. The string thus 
becomes one of the most ornamental features 
of the building ; the deep hollow gives a 
vigorous horizontal line of shadow which 
is contrasted by a line of light caught on 
the projecting round. The narrow fillet 
under this gives a sharp line of accent, 
while the regularly spaced bosses of carving 
in the lower hollow produce a line of ex- 
quisite enrichment. Another example (Fig. 
171), from the cornice of the Cathedral of 
Paris, will help to show what variety was 
attained without adding to the leading 
members that make up the profiles already 
noticed. Hardly any two Gothic strings have the same profile ; 
but the variations consist in changed proportions of the parts. 
In these developed profiles the upper surface always gives a 



GOTHIC PROFILES IN FRANCE 



327 



steep straight line, the lower edge forms a fillet at right angles 
to the slope, and the undercutting of the adjoining hollow is 
deep enough to prevent any trickling back of the drip. 






The set-offs of buttresses are profiled like string-courses, as 
in the set-offs of Fig. 172, all from the Sainte Chapelle of St.- 
Germer-de-Fly. 





Fig. 169. 

The function of the internal string is, of course, more simple 
than that of the external string. It is merely a pronounced 
bond course marking the triforium and clerestory divisions, 
and the dripstone profile is therefore uncalled for here. The 
internal string of the Romanesque architecture of the Ile-de- 



32* 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



France is very plain in profile — as at A (Fig. 173), from St 
Etienne of Beauvais. In the transitional Gothic it becomes a little 




Fig. 170. 



Fig. 171. 



richer — as at B, from the triforium of St. Germer; C, from that of 
Senlis; D, from St. Pierre of Chartres; and E, from the ruined 
Abbey Church of Longpont 
near Soissons. It was found, 
however, that a flat-topped 
string placed as high as the 
triforium hides a considerable 
part of the members above it 
when viewed from the pave- 
ment of the nave, 1 as in Fig. 
174, where if the visual angle 
be that of the dotted line ab, 
the portion cb of the vertical 
c will be hidden from view. 
The low bases of early tri- 
foriums, high above the pave- 
ment, might thus be com- 
pletely out of sight. But if, from the point c, the string be cut to 
a sloping line so as to bring its surface nearly parallel with the 




Fig. 172. 



1 Cf. Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Bandeau, p. 105. 



GOTHIC PROFILES IN FRANCE 



329 



line of vision, as in the triforium string of the nave of Paris (Fig. 
175), the bases will not, if set close to the edge of the string, be 
hidden from view. In the Cathedral of Paris, however, the tri- 
forium arches are of two orders, and the bases of the shafts of 
the suborders, being necessarily set back at a considerable dis- 




tance from the edge of the triforium ledge, are quite out of sight 
from the pavement, notwithstanding the slope given to the 
upper part of the string. This profile was, however, rarely- 
used in the best Gothic period. For interior strings the flat top 
was preferred, and the bases of the triforium shafts are 






/ 



Fig. 174. Fig. 175. Fig. 17b. 

brought into view by being raised on a course of masonry. At 
Chartres, for instance, a vertical course of masonry rises above 
the string, so that the bases, which are set flush with the course 
on which they rest, are in full view from the pavement. In the 
nave of Amiens the richly ornamented string (Fig. 176) has a 
simple profile with the flat top. The triforium, of two orders, is 
here set back considerably so as to bring the face of the shaft 



33° 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



which carries the longitudinal rib of the vaulting into the plane 
of the face of the ground-story wall. This gives three orders of 
members in the triforium and places the shafts of the sub-orders 
very far back. But they are brought into view by being raised 
on a high course of masonry. This course is set near the edge 
of the string, and is profiled with a long slope, a fillet, and a 
round. To render the bases effective at the extraordinary 
height of this triforium, they are provided with very high plinths. 
By thus raising the members which would otherwise be hidden 
by the flat-topped string, the necessity for a sloping upper 
surface to the string itself (which too much resembles that of 
the external dripstone) was avoided. 




E 
Fig. 177. 



In the profiling of vault ribs and archivolts functional exi- 
gencies, though not wholly absent, were less influential than in 
string-courses. The satisfaction of the eye was here more 
largely the controlling motive of design. The characteristic 
profiles were developed early; and few changes were made dur- 
ing the period through which the style retained its integrity. 
The plain square transverse rib A (Fig. 177), frequently used in 
Romanesque vaulting, as in the apsidal aisles of Poissy, was 
heavy in appearance, and was little improved by the chamfer 
that was sometimes given it — as in B in the aisles of St. 
Etienne of Beauvais and the apse of Morienval, or the cove C 
in the aisle of Bury. In the apsidal aisle of St. Martin des 
Champs in Paris the profiles D, E, and F occur. These appear 
like so many attempts to lighten the effect of these ribs, and to 
produce agreeable combinations of mouldings; but the results 
are still heavy and inelegant. In St.-Germer-de-Fly and else- 



GOTHIC PROFILES IN FRANCE 



33i 



where the transverse rib assumes the profile A (Fig. 178), which 
in the apsidal aisle of St. Denis has the improved form B. This 
last, with slight variations of the details, became the most char- 
acteristic profile for this member, and for the main archivolts, 
during the remainder of the twelfth century. This form of rib, 
or archivolt, has, it will be seen, a square section with its edges 
softened by the round mouldings which are contrasted by the 
dark lines of the deep incisions. The profiles of these incisions 



O^O Ci — o 







vary considerably. In the ground-story archivolts of the choir 
of St.-Germain-des-Pres, in some of the archivolts of Poissy and 
elsewhere, they are cut in at right angles to the soffit and sides 
— as at C, giving a strong narrow line of dark on each side 
of the round. In St. Denis, B, a lighter and more elegant 
effect is obtained by the inclined direction of the sides of the 
incisions, and by the curve given to those of the soffit. In 
the apsidal aisles of Paris the curved profile is given to the 
incisions of the sides, but not to those of the soffit, as in D, 
while in the diagonal ribs E, from the same vaulting, a still 
more elegant profile is produced by curving the sides of all the 
incisions. The diagonal ribs, being narrower than the transverse 



332 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

ribs, have, when this profile is used, the flat portion of the soffit 
reduced to a fillet, as shown in the figure. Less common, 
though not infrequent, early rib profiles have a hollow in the 
middle of the soffit — as at F, from the choir of St. Germer; 
G, from St. Hildevert of Gournay; H, from the transept of 
Taverny near Paris; and I, from the choir of Laon. 

The diagonal ribs are usually of a different profile. In the 
oldest Romanesque vaults of the aisles of St. Etienne of Beau- 
vais they are rectangular with a wide bevel on each edge. In 
the apse of Morienval, and other contemporaneous work, they 
are three-quarter rounds, as at A (Fig. 179). In the apsidal 
aisles of St. Denis the profile is as at B, while at Senlis this 
form is improved by bringing the curves together in a more 
acute edge, and by introducing a sunk fillet, as at C. The size 







Fig. 179. 

of the single round of a diagonal of this form is larger than the 
rounds on the edges of the square transverse and longitudinal 
ribs ; and it may be questioned whether this gives good propor- 
tion. 1 However this may be, any objection that may be felt on 
this score to the earlier vaulting was avoided in the Cathedral of 
Paris by giving substantially the same profile (D, Fig. 1 78), to both 
diagonals and transverse ribs. The rounds of the smaller ribs 
were then naturally made smaller than those of the larger ones, 
and thus good proportion was secured. At Laon the profile 
D (Fig. 179) is used for the diagonals in connection with the 
profile I of Fig. 178. This may be regarded as an improve- 
ment on the earlier combination with the single large round on 
the diagonal ; but the rounds of these diagonals are still too 
heavy. Another combination occurs in the earlier vaulting of 
the apsidal chapels of Senlis, where the profile C (Fig. 178) of 

1 Cf. Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Profil, p. 506. 



GOTHIC PROFILES IN FRANCE 



333 



the diagonals is associated with A (Fig. 1 80) of the transverse ribs. 
The lower round of this profile is large enough to secure good 
proportion ; but it is an inelegant form, and was not much used 
after the middle of the twelfth century. Variations of this pro- 
file, which were of frequent occurrence before 1 1 50, are found 
in the diagonal ribs of the aisle vaults of the nave of Bury, B, 
in those of the eastern bay of Berzy-le-Sec near Soissons, C, 
and in those of the choir of Noyon, D, in the same figure ; 
while the unusual profile, E, occurs in the sub-order of one of 
the transverse ribs of Berzy-le-Sec, and the form F in Ville- 









neuve-sur-Verberil (Oise). At Amiens the rib loses the square 
section of the more general type by the addition of a larger 
round member to its soffit, as at A (Fig. 181), and thus is 
produced what may be regarded as the perfected Gothic vault 
rib, which is merely a more elegant variety of the finest 
earlier types. The added member strengthens the rib in the 
direction of the downward pressure of the vault, and makes it 
safe to reduce its width. Great lightness of effect is thus 
secured, together with general harmony. This is a beautiful 
profile in which the rounds are effectively contrasted by the 
reverse curves of the incisions, and by the fillet on the soffit. 

In the vaulting of the nave of Amiens this profile is employed 
for both transverse and diagonal ribs, and these being of different 



334 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 




magnitudes, and the parts of each having appropriate scale, good 
proportion is maintained throughout, as in the case of the more 
simply profiled ribs of the Cathedral of Paris. This profile was 

widely used in vaulting 
after the first quarter of 
the thirteenth century ; 
and it was not materially 
altered during the re- 
mainder of the best pe- 
riod of Gothic art. Nu- 
merous variations occur, 
however, in the propor- 
tions and details — one 
instance of which is 
found in the choir of Beauvais (B, Fig. 181). But while the 
vault ribs frequently take this form in the monuments of the 
first half of the thirteenth 
century, the main archivolts 
retain, in most cases, the 
square section with the round- 
edge mouldings — as in the 
ground-story arcades of Am- 
iens and Beauvais. 

The adjustments as well 
as the forms of the vaulting capitals were generally determined 
by the profiles of the ribs. When in the early Gothic vaulting 

the diagonal ribs had 
the section shown at 
C (Fig. 179, p. 332), 
the arrangement of 
the supporting capi- 
tals was as in Fig. 
182, an impost from 
the triforium of Sen- 
lis. With the employ- 
ment of the square 
section for all the ribs 
the arrangement be- 
came as in Paris (Fig. 46, p. 114). But with the new rib 
profile of Amiens the lateral capitals had to be again set square 





Fig. 183. 



GOTHIC PROFILES IN FRANCE 



335 



with the wall, while the abacus of the central one was placed 
diagonally, as in Fig. 183. 

The only remaining members whose profiles call for exami- 
nation are mullions and tracery. These in the early and finest 
periods are simple. The oldest form of mullion is a plain 
rectangular member with- edges bevelled and a rabbet on each 
side to receive the glass, as at St. Leu d'Esserent (A, Fig. 184). 
This form is appropriate in connection with the heavy pierced 
tympanum of St. Leu ; but in connection with tracery and as a 
member whose function is to support the glass of an opening 
with the least obstruction to the passage of light, it is not a 






good form. The mullion has to resist the force of winds press- 
ing inward. In large openings this force is considerable, and 
to withstand it, the mullion requires to be deep. But in order 
that it may offer the least possible obstruction to the passage 
of light, it is necessary that it should be as narrow as is consist- 
ent with the strength that is needed to carry the weight of the 
tracery with which it is charged. These exigencies were rec- 
ognized by the designer of the dividing members of the apsidal 
openings of the Cathedral of Reims, and the mullion section 
(B, Fig. 184) from one of these openings established the typical 
Gothic form, which was but slightly modified during the best 
epoch, except by the addition of other members similar to those 
of which this section is composed, in cases where the more 
numerous divisions of larger openings called for larger mullions 





33 6 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

and tracery with lighter subordinate members. The apsidal 
openings of Reims require but one mullion each, and all of the 
tracery which branches out of it has the same profile. But in 
the vast openings of the clerestory of Amiens, three mullions 
were needed, the central one of which requires to be stronger 
than the others. It is therefore, together with the jambs, 
treated as of two orders — and hence has the profile C (Fig. 184), 
which is an amplification of the profile of the secondary mul- 
lions whose section is given within that of the larger one. The 
three round members of the central mullion are carried out in 
the larger tracery which branches from it, while the single 
round only adorns the tracery of the sub-order which springs 

from the simpler secondary 
mullions. A variation of this 
profile occurs in the tracery 
of the Sainte Chapelle of St. 
Germer (dating from the 
middle of the thirteenth cen- 
FlG " l85 ' tury), where hollow rounds 

take the place of the sunk fillets of the profile C. No marked 
further changes were wrought in the profiles of mullions and 
tracery until, in the declining Gothic, sharp and multiplied 
arrises took the place of the rounds. 

It may here be remarked that the hood-moulding does not 
generally occur before the thirteenth century ; though in a few 
cases it is found in the early period — as in the choir and apse 
of St.-Germer-de-Fly. After 1200 it is freely employed on the 
outside of the building, and sometimes on internal arcades also. 
On the outside it has the function, though not always the pro- 
file, of a dripstone ; but within its function is purely ornamental. 
One of the earliest instances of its external use appears in the 
apse of the Cathedral of Reims — where it has the profile A 
(Fig. 185), the hollow being adorned at intervals with bosses of 
foliate carving. In the clerestory of Amiens, the sloping top 
becomes steeper, and the hollow is diminished, as at B. In the 
Sainte Chapelle of St. Germer it is developed as at C, and is 
surmounted by an open ornamental gable. 

We have now examined the most characteristic profiles of 
the several Gothic members in which mouldings occur, and it 
will be seen that during the best period of the style they are 



GOTHIC PROFILES IN FRANCE 



337 



simple and rational in character and elegant in effect. Broadly 
rounded mouldings are pleasantly contrasted with equally broad 
hollows and flat surfaces, and are effectively set off by a few 
fillets and deep lines of emphatic shade. All redundance of 
parts and excessive sharpness of accent are avoided until the 
period of decadence — which, however, begins before the close 
of the thirteenth century. The finest Gothic profiles are those 
of the latter part of the twelfth century and the beginning of 
the century following. 



CHAPTER XI 

PROFILES OF THE TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH CENTURIES IN 
ENGLAND 

The pointed architecture of England of the twelfth and 
thirteenth centuries differs from the Gothic of France in the 
profiles of its capitals, bases, and string-courses no less than in 
its larger structural features. This difference is manifest from 
the earliest times, and is constantly shown except in cases where, 
as at Canterbury, French workmanship prevailed. 

We may begin, as in the preceding chapter, with the 
profiles of capitals. Among the earliest and finest capitals 
of England are those of the east transept of the Cathe- 
dral of Lincoln ; and the best of these are in the triforium 
of the north arm (Fig. 186). It will be seen that this type of 
capital is very different from the French examples ; but, while it 
lacks the qualities which distinguish the French types, it has, 
nevertheless, a very beautiful and appropriate form. Its gen- 
eral shape is well adapted to its function of preparing the slender 
shaft to carry a bulky load. The Corinthianesque outline of its 
bell is at once graceful and functionally expressive ; and its 
simple foliate ornamentation, clasping the lower member of the 
round abacus, is designed with subtle art. The round abacus, 
a form which agrees with the arch section employed, presents 
no overhanging angles requiring support from crockets ; and 
the designer has accordingly invented an entirely new 
ornamental scheme in harmony with these conditions. The 
same general type is carried out, with many beautiful minor 
variations, in most of the capitals of Bishop Hugh's choir and 
transept, especially in the richly designed wall arcades of the 
ground story. But associated with them are a few others of a 
different character, which suggest the cooperation of a different 
school of workmen. Of these Fig. 187 is an illustration. In this 
capital we have a curious and significant combination of incon- 
gruous elements. The round abacus, which is a characteristic 

338 



PROFILES IN ENGLAND 



339 



feature of Norman and Anglo-Norman design, is joined to 
a bell of thoroughly French Gothic type. A glance at Fig. 149, 
p. 311, will illustrate this. It will be seen that the crockets 
here employed are altogether French in character and arrange- 




ment, and have the appearance of having been wrought by 
French workmen, who, being required to conform to the general 
Anglo-Norman scheme in employing the round abacus, pro- 
duced a form of capital which has not the merits of either the 
French or the Anglo-Norman types. Associated with the round 
abacus the crockets are meaningless and spoil the general out- 



34o 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



line, while the abacus, which is too small for good proportion, 
has no appearance of organic connection with the bell. The 
total result is awkward and unsatisfactory, notwithstanding that 
the crockets themselves are very beautiful, and have the refine- 
ment of execution which belongs to the finest French work, a 
refinement that is rarely approached in the works of Anglo- 
Norman carvers. 




Fig. 187. — Lincoln. 

Capitals of this mixed character are curiously interspersed 
with those of the local type in nearly all of the arcades of this 
early portion of Lincoln Cathedral. In the south triforium they 
are used exclusively in the first and second bays counting from 
the western transept. Other still different capitals occur in 
these arcades. They have crockets arranged as in the preced- 
ing examples, but they differ from them in design and execution. 
They appear to be English, or Anglo-Norman, imitations of the 



PROFILES IN ENGLAND 



34i 



French work. One of them (Fig. 188), from an early portion of 
the west transept, will serve for illustration. The general out- 
line is better than that of Fig. 187, but the details of design and 
execution are not like French work — -being less finished and 




having peculiar elements which will be considered, in another 
chapter, in connection with the subject of foliate sculpture. 
Figure 189 exhibits another type of frequent occurrence. It is 
a modification of the type shown in Fig. 186, p. 339, but hardly 
an improvement on that beautiful early form. The ornamentation 



342 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



is redundant, and has the effect of a mere wreath encircling the 
bell, whose profile is largely hidden. Yet as compared with later 
capitals in England, it has merits. The ornamentation in itself 
is architectural and beautiful, and the general outline, though it 
has lost the Corinthianesque character, is compact and not un- 
graceful. 




Before the middle of the thirteenth century the tendency to 
redundance of ornament became strong; and this, quite as much 
as the round abacus, characterizes the later forms of so-called 
early English capitals. The profile of the bell is in great part 
lost to view in such capitals, as may be seen in Fig. 190, a 



PROFILES IN ENGLAND 



343 



group of capitals from the arcade of the north choir screen of 
Lincoln. The crockets here, reaching far out from the bell, 
have no function, or functional expression ; and, although their 
lines have much abstract ornamental value, they lack the monu- 
mental restraint, and the quiet beauty, of the best art. 

Of still different character are the nearly contemporaneous 
capitals (Fig. 191) of the transept and eastern end of the nave of 




Fig. 190. — Lii 

Wells Cathedral. These are peculiar, and appear to be the work 
of a local school, whose influence is noticeable at Glastonbury 
also. They differ widely from anything at Lincoln, and, while 
in many points resembling French work, they do not appear to 
be wholly French. The polygonal abacus, the adjustment of 
the crockets, and the details of execution are conspicuously 
French ; but the general form and excessive projection of the 
crockets are Anglo-Norman characteristics. The profile, irre- 
spective of the crockets, is distinctly French. 



344 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



A very common type of capital in England in the thirteenth 
century is the plain moulded capital (Fig. 192). This capital 
has no foliate ornamentation whatever, but is adorned with a 
series of mouldings only, and looks as if it might have been 
turned out on a lathe. It is extensively used in many of the 
most important monuments of the so-called Early English style, 
as in Westminster Abbey, Salisbury, Beverley, and Southwell. 
It is rarely a capital of good profile, and its effect is bald and 
monotonous in the extreme. 



l'iJ> 






III 




Fig. 191. — Wells. 



As a general rule, nearly all of the mouldings of the abacus 
in England are rounded. The upper member, whether in the 
interior or on the exterior of the building, has more or less of 
the form of the drip mould, as at A (Fig. 193), from the arcade 
of the interior of the west transept of Lincoln. B, in the same 
figure, is the profile of the capital (Fig. 190) from the choir 
screen of Lincoln, while exceptional profiles, apparently show- 
ing French influence, are C and D, from Glastonbury and 
Wells respectively. 

The profiles of bases in the early pointed architecture of 



PROFILES IN ENGLAND 



345 



England are often particularly fine. In many cases they some- 
what resemble those of the French Gothic, though they are 
generally made up of a larger number 
of mouldings, and these mouldings 
rarely have the subtle forms of the 
finest French models. The profile A 
(Fig. 194), from the choir of Lincoln, 
is characteristic of the best. Such pro- 
files give a very spreading form to the 
base, and their hollows are deeply cut, 
giving strong lines of shade. The pro- 
file B, in the same figure, from the nave, 
and C, from the presbytery of the same 
cathedral, illustrate more simple types, 
which are often of considerable elegance. 
But base profiles of this fine character 
are not of constant occurrence. Such 
poor ones as A (Fig. 195), from the 
choir of Ely, B and C, from the triforium 
of the nave of Lincoln, D, from the tri- 
forium of the choir of Hexham, and E, 
from the clerestory of the choir of Whitby, are not uncommon. 
The square plinth, like the square abacus, is unusual in 
England. The whole base is commonly round in plan, and of 
the superimposed courses of which the plinth is made up, one 




FlG. 192. — Beverley. 





FIG. 193. 



or more are usually moulded, giving a profile, as at A (Fig. 196), 
from the aisle of the choir of Lincoln, or B, in the same figure, 
from the choir of the Temple Church in London. The square 
plinth being absent, there was, of course, no place for the griffe, 
and thus the base lacks the variety, and the expression of firm 



346 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



foothold, which give so much character and beauty to the bases 
of the French Gothic. In a few instances, however, the square 
plinth occurs. In the French work of the choir of Canterbury 





it is found, of course, and the grijfe occurs with it. In the 
north porch of Wells is a shafted arcade, whose bases rest on a 




' 4 



ledge which is above the eye level. These bases have square 
plinths, and the griffes with which they are furnished are appro- 
priately placed on the under side of the torus, as in Fig. 197. 



PROFILES IN ENGLAND 



347 



The characteristic profile of the string-course in this archi- 
tecture is made up almost exclusively of curves, as at A (Fig. 
198), from the choir of Lincoln. The principle of the dripstone 
is developed partially, but not with strict logic nor with much 
beauty of line. The straight, steep watershed does not gen- 
erally occur, nor the sharp-edged fillet. Often, even in impor- 
tant buildings, the upper member has nothing of the dripstone 
profile. At Salisbury, for instance, the external string at the 





A B 

Fig. 196. 

level of the aisle window sills has the ungraceful and meaning- 
less profile shown in Fig. 199, where the upper member is a 
heavy half-round. The best English string profile is that of 
the so-called beak moulding, B (Fig. 198), from Glastonbury. 
An approach to the French Gothic string profile is sometimes 
found in early work, as in the profile C, in the same figure, from 
the clerestory of the choir of Lincoln, and at Wells the curious 
profile D occurs, the upper part of which is like that of a French 
string. 

In English pointed architecture during the whole of the 



348 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



thirteenth century, the corbel-table is often introduced beneath 
the string. It occurs in Salisbury, in the Presbytery of Lincoln, 
and in many other equally advanced buildings. 

Internal strings do not much 
differ from those of the exterior. 
A characteristic example is that 
shown at E (Fig. 198), from the 
aisle of the choir of Lincoln ; and 
another characteristic form is 
shown at F, from the triforium 
string of the same choir. 

In arch mouldings the Anglo- 
Norman architects displayed a 
singular predilection for a multiplicity of members varying in 
profile and separated by deep hollows. In this way a consider- 
able effect of lightness was given to arches that were really 
very massive. Even in the purely Norman buildings, such as 




Fig. 197. 






Fig. 198. 



St. Albans, Norwich, Romsey, Ely, Peterborough, and many 
others, indications of this tendency are shown by the general 
employment of at least three orders in the main arcades, and 
each of these orders is frequently subdivided into numerous 
mouldings. This multiplication of orders naturally led to the 
rounded impost section to which the round abacus was not 
seldom adjusted with good effect, as at Southwell (Fig. 200). 
And in the early pointed style the rounded section was soon 



PROFILES IN EX GLAND 



349 



given to each separate order by the peculiar arrangement of the 
rounds, hollows, and fillets into which these orders were sub- 
divided. An early instance, among many others, occurs in the 
great archivolts of Malmesbury Abbey (Fig. 201). Another 
peculiarity is noticeable here which was also retained and am- 
plified in the arch profiles of the early English architects, that, 
namely, of the depression between the rounds of the soffit of the 
sub-order. Both of these characteristics are developed in the 



«v/f| 



A< 



mm; 




Fig. 199. Fig. 200. 

archivolts of St. Mary's Church, New Shoreham, and are still 
further amplified in the pier arches of the choir of Lincoln 
(Fig. 202). 1 In the nave of the same building the archivolts be- 
come richer by the addition of a third order ; and each order 
here assumes an almost perfectly segmental section. Equally 
elaborate archivolts of the same character are found in the nave 
of Salisbury. 

1 I would emphasize the fact of the resemblance of the archivolt profiles of the 
choir of Lincoln to those of the nave of Malmesbury, because it has been erroneously 
affirmed by Mr. Parker and others that the choir of Lincoln is a purely English work 
in which no traces of Norman influence appear. 



35° 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



The variations of arch profiles which characterize the early- 
pointed architecture of England are practically endless ; but 
they need not be considered further. They are often made up 




of good parts, skilfully contrasted, but they are almost always 
over-elaborated. The minute subdivisions and the frequent in- 
troduction of narrow fillets, which became constant by the 




middle of the thirteenth century, produce a hard linear effect. 
The best English profiling is that of the earliest pointed monu- 
ments. The mouldings of Bishop Hugh's choir of Lincoln, for 
instance, contrast agreeably, in their greater simplicity, with the 



PROFILES IN ENGLAND 



35* 




Fig. 203. 



redundant profiling of the arcades of the presbytery of the same 
church. 

The profiles of vault ribs are not materially different from 
those of the archivolts. The double rounds, separated by a 
hollow, on the soffit are common. In the choir of Lincoln the 
principal ribs of the aisle vaults 
are almost identical in section 
with the sub-orders of the pier 
arches. In diagonals the profile 
(Fig. 203), from the choir of Lin- 
coln, is characteristic. The lower 
member of this profile resembles 
the corresponding member of the 
rib profiles of Amiens and Beau- 
vais (Fig. 181, p. 334); but the 
details are different — having the 
multiplicity of parts, the deep 
hollows, and the numerous fillets 
already spoken of as characteris- 
tic of Anglo-Norman work. The 
rectangular section of the fillet on the bottom of the lower 
round is characteristic of Anglo-Norman treatment, and is in 
contrast with the gentle curves of the sides of the French 
fillets. Another noticeable peculiarity of the English rib profiles 
is that of the joining of rounds and hollows by continuous 
curves, whereas in France these curves intersect sharply, giving 
accent to the mouldings. The fillets on 
the lower rounds are sometimes curved 
on the sides in England as well as in 
France — as in Fig. 122, p. 223, profiles 
from the Presbytery of Lincoln. The 
continuity of the reversed curves is here 
again noticeable in the joining of the 
rounds and hollows. This treatment ap- 
pears to be of Norman origin, and is frequently met with in 
the profiling of the early Norman Gothic of the continent, as 
in ,Fig. 204, a transverse rib from the vaulting of the apsidal 
aisle of Lisieux. 

Thus a careful comparison of Anglo-Norman profiles with 
those of the French Gothic architects shows that they differ one 




352 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap, xi 

from the other as much as do the respective structural forms. 
The Anglo-Norman genius possessed many admirable qualities, 
but it was distinctly inferior to the French in fine and original 
artistic aptitudes. Where the French architect kept his orders 
few, and his arch mouldings broad and effective, the Anglo- 
Norman multiplied his orders, and subdivided them into nu- 
merous narrow mouldings. And he did this not merely in 
consequence of a predilection for multiplicity of parts, but 
largely because of the nature of his structural system. An 
arcade which carried a very heavy wall required at least three 
orders of archivolts to give it any lightness of effect. The 
lightness of the French Gothic style was the natural result 
of its peculiar constructive system. 

We need not consider the profiles of mullions and tracery in 
England, because, as before remarked (p. 226), the openings of 
the so-called early English style were generally simple lancets 
without dividing members. When, during the second half of the 
thirteenth century, great openings with tracery came into vogue, 
the profiling, like the tracery itself, followed, for the most part, 
that of the Gothic of France, though minor peculiarities of 
detail, corresponding to those which we have noticed in the pro- 
filing of vault ribs, sometimes occur. 



CHAPTER XII 

PROFILES OF THE TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH CENTURIES IN 
GERMANY, ITALY, AND SPAIN 



No noteworthy changes from Romanesque models appear 
to have been made in the profilings of German churches during 
the twelfth century. In the capitals of the pointed buildings of 
the early thirteenth century the influence of the cushion-shaped 
capital of the Rhemish Romanesque architecture is often notice- 
able. In such capitals the lower part of the bell usually has 





FIG. 205. — Magdeburg. 



FlG. 206. — Heisterbach. 






something of the Corinthianesque form, as those of the nave of 
Magdeburg (Fig. 205). Capitals of similar form are, indeed, 
frequent in the transitional Gothic of France, as in Senlis and 
many other buildings of the middle of the twelfth century. 
But in Germany they occur in monuments that were constructed 
more than half a century later. By the second quarter of the 
thirteenth century the Corinthianesque Gothic type of France 
was introduced, and many beautiful examples of it occur in 
Bonn, in Limburg on the Lahn, in St. Gereon of Cologne, and 
elsewhere. In the apse of Heisterbach capitals of the first 
type just mentioned assume very singular and curiously inele- 
gant shapes, as in Fig. 206. These are associated with others 
2A 353 



354 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



of more graceful outlines, while, in the upper arcade of the 
same apse are capitals of wholly different character, having 
round abaci and plain mouldings, substantially like those which 
are common in the early pointed architecture of England. 
Before 1250 the profiling of capitals becomes more peculiarly 
German. The bell (in large pier capitals) often becomes lower 
in proportion to its diameter ; and while the concaved outline is 
retained, this outline is largely obscured by a double row of bossy 
leafage. The abacus, in such capitals, is round in plan, and its 
profiling is made up of rounded mem- 
bers, as in the Liebfrauenkirche of Trier 
(Fig. 128, p. 246), and in St. Elizabeth of 
Marburg. In the Liebfrauenkirche the 
smaller capitals have a more distinctly 
Corinthianesque form. Those of the 
vaulting shafts adjoining the apse are 
of the French Gothic type, while those 
of the smaller arcades have round abaci 
and a likeness to early English types. 
In some parts of the nave of Marburg 
the plain moulded capital again occurs. 
The influence of France is thus shown 
at this period in the forms of capitals, 
no less than in the larger architectural 
features ; but with a subordinate influence from England, such 
as from the historic relations of the two countries we might 
naturally expect to find. 

It was not until after the middle of the thirteenth century 
that the most distinctly German forms of capitals were produced, 
examples of which are found in the choir of Cologne Cathedral; 
a monument which (though purely French, as we have seen, in 
its structural system) is largely German in its ornamental details. 
Figure 207, a capital from the triforium of this choir, affords a 
characteristic illustration. 1 Here the bell (the most beautiful 
part of all fine capitals) can hardly be said to exist. The shaft 
itself, in effect, passes up through the neck moulding and is sur- 
rounded by two zones of leafage of a dry and graceless character. 
Just below the abacus this shaft expands in a short curve which 
is almost wholly hidden by the upper zone of leafage. The pro- 

1 Figure 207 is taken from Boisseree. 




Fig. 207. — Cologne. 



xii PROFILES OF GERMANY, ITALY, AND SPAIN 355 

filing of the abacus is far removed in character from that of 
French models, and is singularly hard and poor. In the naves 
of Strasburg and Freiburg, French Gothic types are again repro- 
duced, though in some cases, as in the vaulting capitals of Frei- 
burg, with a wide departure from the grace and beauty of the 
best French designs. 

Bases, like capitals, in the early part of the thirteenth cen- 
tury are, in Germany, substantially of the early French Gothic 
form, in some cases with the angle spur, as in Bonn, and in 
others without this feature, as 
in Limburg. In many of these 
bases the profiling has a de- 
gree of beauty almost equal 
to that of French work, as in 
the triforium of Limburg ; but 
the extreme refinement of con- 
tour which is found in the fin- 
est Gothic bases of France is 
hardly ever to be met with in 
Germany. Often in the later 
German pointed buildings the 
base profiles are noticeably 

poor, as in the nave piers of Marburg, where a single ogee 
moulding takes the place of the great and little tori with the 
scotia and fillets of the true Gothic base. 

The same general likeness to French models is found in the 
profiles of archivolts, vault ribs, string courses, and mullions, 
until a very late period, when the subdivisions of mouldings are 
greatly increased, and sharp arrises take the place of rounded 
forms, as in the elaborate mouldings of the west end of Cologne. 
But before this latter condition is reached the pier archivolts and 
other kindred members often have much the same character as 
those of the later Anglo-Norman architecture, — the salient mem- 
bers having fillets, and being separated one from another by 
excessively deep hollows, as in Fig. 208, the profile of a pier 
archivolt of Cologne. 

The profiles of the pointed architecture of Italy are very 
diverse in character. No generally recognized principles seem 
to have governed the designers in their production at any period. 
In many cases, especially in the capitals and bases of the early 




356 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



Cistercian and other buildings which have the most of Gothic 
character, the French Gothic profiles are closely reproduced, 
while often, at the same time, they are widely departed from, as 
in the nave of St. Francis of Bologna, where the capitals of the 
octagonal piers are low in proportion to their height, and thus 
resemble those of such German monuments as the Liebfrauen- 
kirche of Trier. In his more independent productions in this 
field the Italian designer displays little inventive aptitude, but 
follows a capricious fancy with little regard to functional needs, 




Fig. 209. — Sta. Maria Novella. 

and not seldom in violation of all principles of grace and beauty. 
As might be expected, his native classic bent displays itself 
more or less constantly, though in the pointed architecture of 
Italy neither Gothic nor classic principles are ever consistently 
adhered to. 

For illustration of the types of capitals and bases, which in 
the native pointed art have the most of Gothic form, we may 
take those of the nave of Sta. Maria Novella in Florence (Fig. 
209). In general form and proportions these capitals lack the 
beauty of French models; and they have little elegance of outline. 



xii PROFILES OF GERMANY, ITALY, AND SPAIN 357 

A tendency, which became strong in Italy, to adorn the bell 
with two continuous rows of leafage is already established. 
That beautiful and appropriate feature, the crocket, is not in- 
cluded in the design, there is no continuous curve from the 
necking to the abacus, and the capitals, while not bad in the 
total effect of the group, are devoid of the charm of the 
best French examples. A few capitals in this nave have 
some elegance of form ; but they incline as much to classic as 
to Gothic types. In the Church of Sta. Croce the octagonal 
columns have capitals of much taller proportions, and many of 
them have considerable beauty. The loads which they carry 
have, however, little more bulk than the columns themselves, and 
thus they have little of the distinctively Gothic function or form 
adapted to that function. As I have before remarked (p. 274), 
the capitals of the nave of the Cathedral of Florence are hardly 
capitals at all, but are rather ornamental bands of leafage follow- 
ing the section of the compound pier. The load is here, as we 
have also before seen, of precisely the same size and section as 
the pier itself ; and the capital, such as it is, has no profile which 
departs from the upright straight lines of the pier except in the 
mouldings of the abacus. 

Italian bases are almost as various in form as the capitals, and 
are, except in the earliest buildings, equally unlike Gothic in their 
profiles. The profile A, Fig. 210, from a pier of the nave of Sta. 
Maria Novella, closely resembles early French models, and bases 
of a more developed Gothic character sometimes occur, espe- 
cially in connection with small shafts, as in the wall arcades of 
St. Francis of Assisi. But in the distinctly native pointed Italian 
architecture the profiles of bases are very different. The profile 
B in the same figure, for instance, from the Cathedral of Florence, 
is almost as poor as the capital of the same pier which we have 
just noticed. Like the capital it consists of little more than a 
series of mouldings surrounding the pier and following its section. 
No well-formed footing for the body of the pier is provided. 
The straight line, ab, in this profile does, indeed, project a little 
beyond the face of the pier, but the enlargement is too slight to 
be readily appreciated by the eye. In the profile C from Sta. 
Croce, this straight line is brought farther out, and the character 
of a base is thus more fully attained ; but the very salient portion 
at the bottom is an awkward and ungraceful feature. 



358 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



Archivolts, and transverse vaulting ribs, in Italian pointed 
architecture, are commonly of plain square section without sub- 
divisions or adornments of any kind. They may, however, be, 
as is Sta. Croce of Florence, of two orders of very slight pro- 
jection, or they may have a plain fillet following the extrados, as 
in the cathedral of the same city. Nothing like the moulded 
sections of these members is common except in early buildings 






B 
Fig. 210. 



where transalpine influences have prevailed, as in the transverse 
ribs of St. Andrea of Vercelli, which have French Gothic profiles. 
Diagonal ribs are commonly bevelled, but they are rarely other- 
wise adorned. The diagonal ribs of the Cathedral of Florence, 
however, have the section shown in Fig. 211, where the intro- 
duction of the cyma recta is one of the many indications, notice- 
able in the Italian art of the Middle Ages, of the hold that classic 
elements of design retained on the minds of the builders. 



xii PROFILES OF GERMANY, ITALY, AND SPAIN 



359 



Outside strings and cornices almost invariably exhibit the 
classic profiling with little essential modification. Anything 
like the Gothic dripstone is rare in Italy. The upper surfaces 
of the outside mouldings are in some cases bevelled, as in the 
Cathedral of Florence, but more often they are flat, even in 
buildings that have most Gothic character, as in St. Francis of 
Assisi. Frequently, as in Florence Cathedral, the main cornice 
is carried on corbels, and is made to support a low parapet. In 
the profiling of all such features classic and Romanesque char- 
acteristics predominate. 




The dependence of Spain on France was as great in respect 
to profiling as we have seen that it was in matters of general 
design and construction. In early pointed buildings, like the old 
Cathedral of Salamanca, the capitals and bases are purely French 
in aspect, and must, in most cases, it would seem, have been 
wrought by French workmen. This continues to be the case 
until after about 1220, when, in the Cathedral of Burgos and else- 
where, an English influence seems to make its appearance in the 
substitution of the round for the square abacus, as well as in 
some other details. Nothing peculiar, that can be considered 
as the result of a native artistic influence, appears in these 
details at any period of pointed design in Spain. In vault ribs 
and archivolts a peculiar massiveness is noticeable, as before 
remarked (p. 284), in early buildings; and in such buildings, as 
in Salamanca, transverse ribs and the sub-orders of archivolts 
are, as in Italy, generally square without any mouldings. In 
respect to the general imitation of French models outside 
mouldings form no exception to those of the interior. So little 
is there in the profilings of Spain that is in any way peculiar to 
the country that no detailed consideration of them is necessary. 



CHAPTER XIII 

GOTHIC SCULPTURE IN FRANCE 

The fact that a remarkable school of sculpture — a school 
far in advance of all others of the Middle Ages — was developed 
during the twelfth century, in connection with the Gothic 
architecture of the Ile-de-France, has not, hitherto, been duly 
recognized by students of the history of the Fine Arts. Modern 
writers, following Vasari, have so generally regarded Italy as 
the country of the earliest revival of the arts, and have so 
fixed in our minds the names of Pisano and Cimabue as the 
pioneers of the revival, that we are naturally unprepared, so 
far as our notions have been derived from the literature of the 
subject, to find that a no less remarkable revival had place in 
the north of Europe a hundred years before the great Italian 
awakening. 

Attention has been called by Flaxman, 1 and more recently by 
Cockerell, 2 to the fact that the west facade of Wells Cathedral 
stands as a witness to the existence of an advanced school of 
sculpture in Northern Europe contemporaneous with the art 
of Niccola Pisano ; but the significance of this fact has made 
little impression. And neither Flaxman nor Cockerell appears 
to have recognized the further fact that a century before the 
date of the sculptures of Wells, a school of sculpture was in 
existence across the channel which had produced works at 
Corbeil, at St. Denis, and at Chartres of still greater merit. 

The earliest schools of sculpture on this side of the Alps 
were those of Southern Gaul, where longer than elsewhere the 
ancient Roman civilization had retained its life and vigour ; and 
where, as we have already seen, the soil was thickly covered 
with Roman monuments. Among these were vast numbers of 
sculptures which, coarse and inferior as they for the most part 

1 Lectures on Sculpture. London, 1829. 

2 Iconography of the west front of Wells Cathedral, Oxford and London, 1851. 

360 



GOTHIC SCULPTURE IN FRANCE 



36i 




were, afforded models, in some measure characteristic, of the 
great art of antiquity. Upon such models the mediaeval sculp- 
tors of this region naturally formed their style, just as the con- 
structors formed their architectural system on that of the extant 
Roman buildings. 

But the productions of the mediaeval sculptors of Southern 
Gaul abundantly show that other 
sources of instruction and inspiration 
were also open to them in the works 
of Byzantine art — an art which, in its 
best forms, was of a far more ad- 
mirable and potent character than 
the decadent provincial Roman art. 

The principal examples of Byzan- 
tine design offered as models to the 
artists of the West were the manu- 
script illuminations and the carvings 
in ivory, large numbers of which 
were possessed by the great mo- 
nastic houses of the early Middle 

Ages, most of which were active centres of artistic culture and 
production. Of these manuscripts and carvings many are still 
preserved in the National Library of Paris and in other great 
European collections. The miniatures 
with which the pages of these manu- 
scripts are profusely adorned are worthy 
of special attention. They afford a notion 
of Byzantine art very different from that 
which is derived from the writings of 
Vasari, or from the formalized productions 
of the school of Mount Athos, and are 
often superior in design to the splendid 
mosaics of Venice and Ravenna. They 
exhibit little of the stiffness, inelegance, 
and semibarbaric rudeness that are com- 
monly conceived to be characteristic of Byzantine work. They 
frequently display a remarkable degree of grace, action, and 
expression. Figures 212 and 213, from a Byzantine manuscript 
of the tenth century, 1 will convey some idea of their character, 

1 Ms. No. 64, National Library, Paris. 




362 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

though much of their beauty is lost by the absence of the 
colouring and the subtle refinement of their microscopic finish. 
The student of Greek art will not fail to perceive in these 
diminutive figures 1 many qualities that are plainly of Hellenic 
origin. The composition of lines and the casting of draperies 
are closely similar to those of the finest Greek coins and other 
reliefs. In such works as these were some of the fundamental 
principles of ancient Greek art preserved to the Middle Ages ; 
and their influence upon the early art of Southern and Central 
Gaul, and afterwards upon the Gothic schools of the North, 
will, upon comparison, become apparent. 

The degree of classic feeling and skill in design which were 
sometimes reached in these early schools of Gaul, and which 
were largely due to the Byzantine influence, is shown, for in- 
stance, in the sculptures upon the lintel of the Church of Notre 
Dame du Port, Clermont-Ferrand, which date from the close of 
the eleventh century, and of which Fig. 214 represents a single 
figure of exceptional beauty. The similarity of this early 
mediaeval art of France to ancient Greek art is, in some cases, 
even more striking, and is often such as to almost compel belief 
that there must have been some more direct transmission of 
principles and methods of design than has been supposed. 
The similarity of treatment is not seldom surprising. The well- 
known convention in the treatment of hair in archaic and early 
Greek sculpture of arranging it in parallel wavy tresses brought 
down from the crown of the head and terminated in a zone of 
formal curls about the forehead, as in Fig. 215, the head of the 
Apollo of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, for instance, is re- 
produced completely in the head (Fig. 216) from the tympanum 
of the portal of Moissac. In so far as this peculiarity is con- 
cerned the two works might almost appear to be products of 
one age and one school. It is noticeable, also, that this pecu- 
liarity is, in both schools, most marked in early works. In 
archaic Greek art such conventions are very pronounced. The 
two characteristics of the treatment of hair just noticed are not, 
indeed, always found in archaic Greek sculpture ; other equally 
conventional modes of arrangement occur. The zone of formal 
curls is sometimes omitted, and the hair is often parted with 
wavy tresses falling down on either side of the forehead and 

1 These figures are of about the same size as the originals. 



GOTHIC SCULPTURE IN FRANCE 



363 



temples, or otherwise varied ; but whatever the arrangement of 
locks and tresses may be, a similar regularity of details, and the 
same simplified and conventional treatment, are practically con- 
stant. The Greek sculptor, even of an advanced period, seems 
to have felt that stone does not lend itself to any imitative 
rendering of hair, and he took evident pleasure in making it 
emphatically conventional. The monumental and ornamental 
value of this treatment was also, it is clear, appreciated by 




giij;iiigi8KSBgfgi;aii» 

FlG. 214. — Notre Dame du Port. 



him ; and hence it does not disappear until the period of the 
decadence of Greek art. 

With a few exceptions, as in the case of the school of 
Toulouse, 1 to which the sculptures of Moissac (of which the 
head, Fig. 216, is an example) belong, the schools of sculpture 
that arose south of the Loire were not progressive schools. 
They rarely displayed any original powers, or any fresh artistic 

1 Cf. Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Sculpture, pp. 125, 126. 



364 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



purpose. They were traditional schools without vitality, they 
gave birth to no important developments, and, although for a 
time their activity was vigorous, after the twelfth century they 
passed into decline. 

North of the Loire, however, the case was different. In 
Burgundy the monastic carvers, by the beginning of the twelfth 
century, produced works which, though still not freed from the 
limitations of primitive artistic conditions, gave evidence of a 
new impulse guided by a fresh observation of nature. Of this 




Fig. 215. — Olympia. 

sculpture the Abbey Church of Vezelay and the Cathedral of 
Autun afford, in the jambs and tympanums of their portals, 
characteristic examples. These are, indeed, curious, and almost 
barbaric in general aspect ; but they are also remarkable for 
movement and expression, as well as for a marked survival of 
classic qualities of composition. M. Viollet-le-Duc has called 
attention 1 to two figures of apostles carved on one of the jambs 
of the portal of Vezelay. They appear engaged in animated 
conversation, and their gestures are finely caught from nature. 
Among the smaller figures of the tympanum above these are 



1 S.v. Sculpture, pp. 



GOTHIC SCULPTURE IN FRANCE 



365 



some of surprising freedom of action and truth of form, though 
archaic conventions are still conspicuous. 

The works of these early schools of the South and of Bur- 
gundy, together with those examples of Byzantine art that were 
common in the monastic libraries, appear to have constituted 
the chief sources of stimulus and guidance open to the early 
sculptors of the Ile-de-France, whose works soon surpassed in 
excellence all that had been previously done since the decline 
of the ancient schools of Greece. In the Ile-de-France the con- 




ditions for the growth of a school of sculpture were, by the 
beginning of the twelfth century, exceptionally good. Not only 
was the race itself, as we have before noticed, peculiarly well 
fitted for artistic pursuits, and the conditions of climate favour- 
able, but the geological formation of the country was such as to 
meet all the requirements of this new art. As Greece had her 
Paros and Pentelicus, and Italy had her Carrara, so France had, 
in the basins of the Seine and the Oise, her beds of lias ch 'quart, 
a stone of fine grain and strong substance, easily cut and suit- 
able for delicate carving. 



366 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



CHAP. 






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jSS 



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Of figure sculpture in the Ile-cle-France we have few exam- 
ples of an earlier date than the second quarter of the twelfth 
century. But from about 1140 remains 
are extant which show, together with 
the imperfections peculiar to an im- 
mature art, a grace and mastery of de- 
sign, a truth and tenderness of sentiment, 
and a fineness and precision of chiselling, 
that are unparalleled in any other schools 
save those of ancient Greece and of Italy 
in the fifteenth century. Conspicuous 
among the early works of this most 
noble school are the statues of the north 
transept of the Church of St. Denis. 
They are life-sized figures of kings, 
and are ranged against the shafts of the 
jambs on either side of the portal. These 
statues possess merits never before at- 
tained in Northern Europe ; though at 
first sight they may not impress the be- 
holder as much superior to the early 
works that had been produced elsewhere 
in the North. On attentive examination, 
however, their remarkable qualities will 
be apparent to a discriminating and ap- 
preciative eye. If they be compared 
with the works of the sculptors of South- 
ern Gaul, — as, for instance, with the 
statues of the cloister of St. Trophime 
at Aries (Fig. 217), which are even later 
in date, — their superior qualities will be 
felt. In this example it will be noticed 
that, notwithstanding the fine classical 
casting of the draperies, there is much 
of the rigid effect which is noticeable in 
the more formal types of Byzantine art. 
Traces of Byzantine convention in the 
treatment of the draperies are clearly marked. This is true 
especially on the breast, where the folds are suggested by sim- 
ple incised lines on surfaces which are but very slightly mod- 



}■* 



Fig. 217. — St. Trophime. 



GOTHIC SCULPTURE IN FRANCE 



367 



4\ 



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1 m 



ui 



elled. In the heads and hands a degree of angularity 
apparent, and a tendency to model in ,„„„,,~.„^>_.„ 

planes, which bespeak a comparatively 
rude art. In the sculptures of St. Denis 
(Fig. 218) these defects do not appear. 
In the head and extremities there is no 
block-like treatment. The forms are 
modelled into the rounded surfaces of 
nature, the features are delicately 
wrought, the hair and beard, which are 
grandly massed, are subdivided into 
orderly locks in a thoroughly Greek 
manner ; and while every part is deli- 
cately finished there is no over-elabora- 
tion, nor has any attempt been made to 
give the hard stone an undue look of 
pliancy. Yet the carver has wrought 
the important details with special care, 
— -the thin, gently compressed lips, the 
light, parted mustache, and the well- 
formed chin. The drapery is as simple 
and well composed as is that of the 
figure of Aries ; but it exhibits a supe- 
rior grace of line, and although the 
work is wanting in the freedom and 
skill of later Gothic works, there is 
hardly any trace of the formal Byzan- 
tine conventions. The statue manifests 
a new spirit and a high order of genius. 
It already embodies those fundamental 
architectural qualities of design which 
distinguish Gothic sculpture. 

The most splendid collection of early 
Gothic statues extant is that of the west 
front of the Cathedral of Chartres. 
These sculptures date from about the 
middle of the twelfth century ; and 

J Fig. 218. — St. Denis. 

though even more severely architectural 

in character than the figures of St. Denis, they have not th< 

stiff and block-like effect of the sculptures of St. Trophime 



368 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 




'i ■ i 



In execution they are remarkably refined and delicate. The 
heads display a variety and lifelikeness that 
indicate a close observation of nature. Each 
one has an air of veracity as if it were the 
portrait of an individual. 1 The treatment of 
hair and beards is at once monumental and 
true to nature ; while the draperies, though 
severely conventionalized and even archaic in 
character, are in some cases remarkably faith- 
Iw'Cff I ^ m ^ e modelling of folds, and elegant in 
arrangement. In short, these statues are by 
no means the stiff and immobile objects which 
an inattentive observer might fancy them to 
be. Their erect and formal postures, elongated 
proportions, and severe modelling are largely 
the result of deliberate architectural purpose 
rather than of incapacity on the part of the 
carvers to give them more natural freedom of 
movement and more developed form. This 
becomes evident on attentive examination. 
Within the limits fixed by the conditions to 
which he had to conform the artist has, in 
each case, shown great ability and skill as a 
lifelike and graceful designer. Take, for 
instance, the statue Fig. 219. Although, in 
common with all the others, standing erect 
and facing forward, the upper portions of this 
figure are not wholly wanting in ease and even 
grace. The positions of the arms are, as 
compared with those of Fig. 217, both natural 
and apparently capable of movement. The 
composition of lines in the head and shoul- 
ders, the easy fall of that portion of the 
mantle which crosses the throat, the modelling 
of it over the breast and arms, and the delicate 
rounding of the lifted hand — all bespeak 

fig 21Q — chartres artistic powers superior to those of the sculp- 
tor of Aries. The rigid restraint of the 

figure is apparently self-imposed in obedience to the demands 

1 Cf. M. Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Sculpture, p. 118. 



1 




xni GOTHIC SCULPTURE IN FRANCE 369 

of its architectural connection. The rigidity of the statue of 
St. Trophime appears, on the other hand, to be inherent in its 
nature. 

Contemporaneous statues like those of Chartres flank the 
south portal of the Cathedral of Le Mans, and several 
others (now at St. Denis) have been preserved from the de- 
stroyed Church of Notre Dame of Corbeil. These earliest ex- 
amples of Gothic figure sculpture deserve more study than they 
have hitherto received. Their architectural appropriateness is 
most admirable, and their archaic characteristics are favourable 
to monumental effect. The multiplicity of narrow vertical folds 
in the draperies and the formal zigzags of their edges harmo- 
nize well with the architectural lines, and help to produce the 
effect of integral relationship with the structure. The likeness 
to ancient art is here surprising. The treatment of the draperies 
is almost identical with that of certain archaic Greek statues 
which have been found in the island of Delos. Though more 
developed in form than these early Gothic works, one of these 
ancient Greek statues might, if wrought in French limestone, 
and slightly modified in outline, stand in the west portal of 
Chartres without apparent lack of keeping. 

It is worthy of notice that the mediaeval architect in France 
did not, as a rule, employ the human figure in the manner of a 
caryatid. The ranges of statues which adorn the vast receding 
jambs of the portals of French churches are usually placed 
each against a shaft which bears the archivolt. Or if the shaft 
and the statue are wrought out of one stone, they are each 
distinctly developed enough to show that the shaft is the sup- 
porting member. To make the figure itself an architectural 
support would not be in accordance with the logical spirit of 
Gothic art. 1 Nor in true Gothic works are statues set in niches; 
for in Gothic architecture the walls are, as we have seen, re- 
duced to a minimum both in extent and thickness, and neither 
walls nor buttresses contain more substance than is necessary, 
so that there is nothing to spare for recesses. The sheltered 
places sometimes occupied by statues, as in the buttresses of the 

1 It is true that corbels are often carved into the forms of heads and crouching 
figures, as at Amiens and elsewhere, but these are minor features. Exceptions occur, 
of course, as in the figure treated as a caryatid in the pier buttress of the nave of 
Reims. 

2B 



370 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

Cathedral of Paris, are not in reality niches. They are not 
spaces hollowed out of the solid masses. They are nothing 
more than ornamental additions to the set-offs. The set-off in 
such cases has a level ledge on which the statue rests with a 
sheltering canopy built over it. These may be elaborated and 
multiplied, as in the magnificent pinnacled canopies that shelter 
the statues of the buttresses of Reims. The nearest approach 
to niches in pure Gothic occurs in the spaces between the 
mouldings of the archivolts of portals in which diminutive cano- 
pies are set over small statues, as in the portal of the Virgin 
of the Cathedral of Paris. In general it may be said that it is 
only in the decline of Gothic that real niches occur, as in the 
facades of the transepts of Paris. 1 

Statues in Gothic art are thus without mechanical office 
(except in certain positions, as in the canopies of buttresses, 
where their weight may be of importance in the construction) ; 
but they are so much in harmony with the construction as to 
seem to belong to it. In no other art has the union of struc- 
tural and ornamental elements been so close and inseparable. 

The Gothic statuary of the twelfth century is always 
severely conventional ; though, as we have seen, it is not want- 
ing in expression of life. But the artists of the early thirteenth 
century were able to give more freedom to their figures without 
materially diminishing their architectural value. Before we 
pass to the consideration of these more advanced works, how- 
ever, we must examine a few examples of the relief sculpture of 
the twelfth century. 

Besides the jambs and archivolts, where figure sculpture in 
the full round was effective, the tympanum and lintel of the 
portal presented within easy view admirably protected fields for 
relief sculpture. On these limited surfaces the architectural 
restraints, though still imperative, were not of the same kind as 
those which governed the forms of the statues of the jambs. 
Grouping and freedom of movement were possible in this 
situation, and relief compositions embracing many figures in 
free action, setting forth some scriptural story or religious 
legend, were here elaborately wrought. 

1 Exceptions to this rule occur, of course. Among these may be mentioned the 
real niches in the gable of the central portal of the west front of Bourges. Cf. Viollet- 
le-Duc, s.v. Niche, p. 414 et seq. 



xin GOTHIC SCULPTURE IN FRANCE 371 

Among the earliest remaining examples of such composi- 
tions are those of the tympanums of the portals of the west 
front of St. Denis and the tympanum of the south door of the 
west facade of the Cathedral of Paris. The sculpture of this 
latter tympanum was carved during the administration of 
Maurice de Sully, the founder of the cathedral, and it is sup- 
posed to have been either a part of an earlier facade or of one 
that was projected. 1 The preservation of this work and its 
incorporation with the new facade show, on the part of the 
artists of the early thirteenth century, a generous recognition of 
merit in the works of their predecessors. In these sculptures 
the qualities already noticed as characterizing the early art of 
the Ile-de-France are noticeable. In the upper portion of the 
tympanum the Virgin is represented in high relief enthroned 
under a shafted canopy with angels and other figures on either 
side. The forms are modelled with delicate skill, and the move- 
ments are easy and graceful. The work manifests a genuine 
artistic spirit, though the conventions and archaisms of the 
primitive schools are still strongly marked. 

Among other works of this class which were executed dur- 
ing the twelfth century, the reliefs of the lintel of the Cathedral 
of Senlis are of surpassing beauty. They are two in number, 
the lintel being divided into two parts by a central shaft carved 
on its face. The subjects represented are the Death of the 
Virgin and the Resurrection of the Virgin. The first composi- 
tion, on the spectators' left, is so much mutilated that it cannot, 
by itself, be fairly judged. But the one on the right (Plate X), 
representing the resurrection, though also sadly broken in parts, 
is yet tolerably complete as a whole. It is not easy to find 
terms in which to convey an adequate idea of the merits of this 
remarkable work. In sentiment and grace it is equalled by few 
reliefs of any school or period. The archaisms of treatment 
which it exhibits, like those of the subsequent masterpieces of 
painting by Giotto, — which the work in many points resembles, 
— do not unpleasantly affect its charm. It is an instructive 
fact, not often enough considered, that the works of art of 
past ages in which sentiment and expression are the most 
touching and admirable are usually those of early masters who 
have but imperfectly attained command of technical processes. 

1 Cf. M. F. de Guilhermy, Itineraire Archeologique de Paris, pp. 68, 69. 



372 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

With the full attainment of technical skill artificial qualities of 
design and affectations of expression are apt to be manifest. 
Compare, for instance, Giotto's fresco of the Death of St. 
Francis with Raphael's Transfiguration ; or Carpaccio's Sleep- 
ing St. Ursula with Titian's Assumption. In this relief of the 
lintel of Senlis there is a tenderness of expression and a natural 
unity of movement in the eager group of welcoming angels as 
they press forward to aid the awakening soul. No exaggerated 
gesture and no affected grace mar its subtle beauty. The angelic 
attendants are absorbed in their joyful ministry to the rising 
spirit, and each figure contributes its part with consummate 
though unconscious art. In composition of lines and placing 
of masses the design has extraordinary merit. The wings and 
draperies are harmonious and balanced, and the forms, though 
technically imperfect, have a naive charm. It would be hard 
to find, in the whole range of plastic art, a figure of less con- 
ventional pose, or more subtle beauty, than the angel on the left 
who stoops forward to support the shoulder of the Virgin. The 
slight lack of symmetry which may, at first glance, be felt in 
the total scheme is corrected by the adjoining composition 
when the lintel is viewed as a whole. But even by itself the 
design is not ill balanced. A pyramidal arrangement of the 
central masses is noticeable ; and it will be seen that the stoop- 
ing figure and the upright shaft on the left form opposing and 
balancing lines to the stooping figure and the erect one on the 
right. The central figure in the upper row on the right, for 
which there is no counterpart on the left, serves to break up 
any too marked formality of arrangement, and to complete the 
natural grouping through which an orderly principle of design 
is fully maintained. As in all other noble art it is here evident 
that the artist was animated by no theoretic ideal. No conven- 
tional elegance, no artificial types, were as yet sought. The 
types are common and are rendered with archaic simplicity. 
The charm of the work depends upon its genuine sentiment, 
its rhythmical grace, and its well-ordered design. So, too, it 
was with the early art of Greece. The same underlying prin- 
ciples give to the reliefs of the Harpy Tomb, and the Leucothea 
of the Villa Albani, a kind of beauty that is wanting in the 
more technically perfect art of Scopas and Praxiteles. And so 
it was again with the works of the early Italian designers. The 



xni GOTHIC SCULPTURE IN FRANCE 373 

polished but artificial types of form, and the meretricious refine- 
ments, which belong to the later developments of Italian art, do 
not appear before the sixteenth century. The types of Giotto, 
of Angellico, and of Massaccio exhibit no artificial character : 
they are the familiar types of the men and women whom the 
artists found about them ; but with such types these great 
artists, like those of France in the twelfth century, knew how- 
to produce works of exalted beauty. I do not, however, mean 
to imply that archaic treatment and common types are neces- 
sary characteristics of the greatest art. I would merely empha- 
size the fact that hitherto (except perhaps in Greek art) the 
work most distinguished by power and variety of expression 
has exhibited these imperfections. The integrity of feeling 
manifest by early masters seems, as has been often observed, 
to be lost before technical perfection is reached. The plastic 
art of France in the twelfth century does not exhibit any 
of those superficial attractions which appear at a later epoch ; 
but in essential merits it is not inferior to that of any other 
time or school. Of this art there is hardly a more admirable 
example extant than the lintel of Senlis. And this work is 
no less meritorious in execution than in design and senti- 
ment. Wrought in a fine, close-grained stone, which takes a 
finish almost equal to that attainable in marble, every mass is 
finely modelled and every detail is crisply cut. The number of 
works of this epoch remaining is limited. The most extended, 
if not in all respects the most noble, impulse in the Gothic art 
of figure sculpture was yet to come. The foregoing examples 
will serve to show the state of development that had been 
reached in the Ile-de-France before the great facades of Paris, 
Amiens, and Reims had come into existence. Of the cathedrals 
that were begun in the twelfth century few were completed so 
far as to include their west ends before the thirteenth century. 
The vast wealth of statuary which adorns these sublime monu- 
ments is. for the most part, subsequent in date to the year 1200. 

Gothic sculpture of the early thirteenth century develops 
into forms that are less cramped by imperfect technique, and 
that bear fewer traces of primitive conventions, than the works 
of the preceding century. Taught by the example of the 
earlier mediaeval schools, imbued with the spirit of ancient 



374 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



design traditionally transmitted through Byzantine art, but not 
enslaved by its technical mannerisms, the artists of the Royal 
Domain began with rapidly increasing proficiency to give freer 
play to their own imagination and observation, and to produce 
works of art which in all but sentiment — in which the best 
works of the twelfth century cannot be surpassed — remain 
unrivalled among the productions of the Middle Ages. 

The portion of the Gothic building where figure sculpture 
chiefly occurs is the western facade, though other parts of the 
exterior are also more or less richly adorned with statues. In a 
cathedral of the first order, such as Paris, Chartres, Amiens, 
or Reims, many hundreds of sculptured figures are displayed. 
Gathered principally within the deeply splayed portals, there is 




....... „_. ...... T -.,„,. ; ^p 5 g(, 




Fig. 220. — Pans. 



often in addition, as at Paris, Amiens, and Reims, a row of 
colossal statues just above them extending across the entire 
front. And besides these are many figures, on large and on 
small scale, under the canopies of the buttresses, while gar- 
goyles project from the cornices, and grotesque creatures are 
ranged upon the parapet. 

Of all the great cathedral facades of this epoch the most impor- 
tant in point of sculpture is that of Paris. Begun in the very first 
years of the thirteenth century, it exhibits the finest work of the 
French carvers during the entire first quarter of that century. 
No other church, not even Amiens, affords so fine a display of 
the Gothic genius in this branch of design. As almost every- 
where else in France, a great part of the sculptured enrichment 



xiii GOTHIC SCULPTURE IN FRANCE 375 

of Paris has perished by wilful human violence. In view, 
however, of the vicissitudes of popular sentiment and passion 
through which it has passed, it is surprising that so much of 
the original ornamentation of this noble monument has been 
preserved. Of its three great western portals nearly all the 
sculptures of the tympanums and archivolts remain substan- 
tially unimpaired. Those of the north door are the earliest, it 
having been at this point that the erection of the facade was 
begun in the first decade of the thirteenth century. 1 The 
sculpture of the tympanum of this doorway is thus in date 
enough later than that of the lintel of Senlis to show a con- 
siderable advance in point of freedom and skill in the rendering 
of forms. This tympanum is divided horizontally into two 
compartments. In the lower compartment (Fig. 220) is repre- 
sented the entombment of the Virgin, and in the upper com- 
partment her coronation. Such skilful treatment of form, and 
such beauty of modelling, had not before been seen since the 
ancient classic times. And here again the likeness to certain 
qualities of Greek art is both remarkable and instructive. It 
is a fundamental likeness, showing itself in those finer pecu- 
liarities of composition and execution which escape the merely 
imitative workman but are natural to the workman who has 
been bred on traditional principles. It is due, probably, to the 
natural propensities of men constituted like the mediaeval artists 
of France, and disciplined as they had been by the Greek artistic 
traditions as transmitted through the Byzantine channel. The 
native qualities of the race made them quick to assimilate what 
was vital in these traditions, the imagination was stimulated by 
the poetic and religious ideals of the age, and sustained by 
popular interest. The free study of nature by such men 
under such conditions might naturally lead to results having 
much in common with those that had before been reached 
by the Greeks. Not, however, that the mediaeval outlook 
upon the world of nature, or the mediaeval apprehensions of 
beauty, were the same as those of the ancient Greeks. They 
were, of course, in many respects so widely different that 
there was little in common between them. The Greek, in 
his mature development, demanded physical beauty. In draw- 

1 Cf. Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Porte, p. 421 ; and Guilhermy, Ftineraire Archeologique 
de Paris, p. 24. 



576 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

ing from nature his materials, wherewith to give worthy embodi- 
ment to his conceptions of gods and heroes, he rejected, for 
the most part, all that was not outwardly beautiful. Selection 
with him was an inborn principle and a constant habit. The 
Gothic artist, on the contrary, saw that charm may coexist with 
bodily imperfection ; and although he also exercised a spirit of 
choice, this choice was not determined by exclusive regard for 
physical qualities. It sought after an expression of the spirit 
which may lend an interest to the sculptor's work superior to 
that of mere perfection of form. But while thus differing 
in their respective aims and apprehensions there is never- 
theless a close and interesting kinship between the Greek 
sculptors of antiquity and the Gothic sculptors of the Ile-de- 
France in the thirteenth century. They exhibit a similar 
understanding, though a different choice, of the elements of 
form ; and a similar sense of the treatment which the ends of 
plastic art demand. It is this similarity of artistic feeling and 
executive instinct, finding expression under changed conditions 
in new forms, which gives the likeness to Greek art that we 
recognize in this sculpture of the portal of the Virgin, and in 
so many other examples of Gothic art. It is, however, only in 
technical qualities that this tympanum shows a marked advance. 
The sentiment and expression of the lintel of Senlis are by no 
means equalled by this work. 

Judging from what remains of the reliefs of the tympanum 
of the central portal, the total design must have been even finer 
in spirit than that of the portal of the Virgin. But this tym- 
panum has suffered greatly. In the last century it was sub- 
jected to the most outrageous mutilation at the hands of the 
architect Soufflot, who, in order to enlarge the space for the 
passage of processions on high ceremonial occasions, removed 
the dividing pier and cut a large piece out of the lower part 
of the tympanum. 1 The subject is the Last Judgment, and it 

1 Cf. De Guilhermy p. 26. This mutilation, and the fact that a part of the sculp- 
ture of the tympanum as it now exists is a restoration, were inadvertently overlooked 
in my first edition. This restoration, like many others that have been lately executed 
in France, is a marvel of skilful workmanship. The tympanum as it now stands has 
the appearance of an unaltered original work. This is a matter for regret rather than 
satisfaction ; for while it may appear to restore the original effect, it misleads the 
unsuspecting observer. The monument is rendered to this extent a corrupt docu- 
ment. Skilful and admirable as the work of the modern imitator may be, it cannot 



xin GOTHIC SCULPTURE IN FRANCE 377 

is treated with an impressiveness hardly equalled elsewhere. It 
would be difficult to find another tympanum of the time so nobly 
embossed with expressive sculpture. 

Passing to the works of the second half of the thirteenth 
century we have an elaborate example, dating from about 1257, 
in the door of the south transept of this same Cathedral of 
Paris. It may be noticed in passing that constructive propriety 
is not strictly observed in this doorway. The sculptured archi- 
volts are not sustained by true shafts with capitals and bases 
as in the earlier Gothic portals ; but in place of them slender 
rounds, which are merely mouldings, rise continuously to the 
crown of the arch. In this, and in some other respects, this 
portal belongs to a class of constructions which at this epoch 
first introduced elements of decline into Gothic architecture. 
The statues which adorn the jambs of this doorway are placed 
in niches between these continuous mouldings, and thus have 
a degree of independent character which is in contrast to the 
strictly architectural dependence of the statues of the best 
period of Gothic art. 

The subject of the sculptures of the tympanum here is the 
history of St. Stephen. They display much beautiful carving — 
figures of lifelike freedom wrought with technical skill of a 
high order and with elaborate finish. But the monumental 
grandeur and naive sentiment of the best Gothic period have 
here given place to a somewhat over-naturalistic treatment and a 
melodramatic expression. The sculptor has apparently become 
conscious of his art and seems to take pleasure in its display. 

Returning now to the consideration of statues ranged 
against the jambs, or wrought upon the dividing pillars of the 
doorways, 1 one of the finest, dating from the first half of the 
thirteenth century, is the statue of the Virgin of the south 

be in all respects like the original work in whose place it stands. Its incorporation 
with the old work is a deplorable and inexcusable mistake, and an injustice to 
students of mediaeval art. In cases where the original sculpture of great monuments 
has been injured, the best that their custodians can do is to protect from further harm 
what remains, leaving the gaps to stand as such. The facade of Paris would be more 
impressive with the scars of past ages all visible than it now is in its deceitful com- 
pleteness. 

1 After the eleventh century the principal portals of the great monastic and 
cathedral churches were commonly divided into two openings by trutneanx, or pillars 
of stone, affording place for a statue on its front face. 



378 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



door of the west facade of Amiens. As I have already 
said, the artists of the early thir- 
teenth century were able to give 
more freedom and natural modelling 
to such figures than had been the 
case with those of the preceding 
century, while maintaining that mon- 
umental character which is so es- 
sential a quality of architectural 
sculpture. In this Virgin of Amiens 
the archaisms that appear in the 
early statues of Chartres and St. 
Denis give place to a more skilful 
and natural execution. The head 
of this figure is well set, the features 
are regular and finely cut, and the 
wimple falls in graceful lines upon 
the shoulders. The pose of the 
body is unconstrained, though quiet, 
and the simple draperies are cast 
into easy folds of truthful form as 
well as classic elegance. Few exam- 
ples of mature mediaeval art exhibit 
more calmness or more sweetness of 
expression. 

More strikingly graceful and 
queenly in bearing is the statue 
(Fig. 221) of the Virgin in the portal 
of the north transept of the Cathe- 
dral of Paris. In the Virgin of 
Amiens just spoken of, as in the 
earlier Gothic statues generally, the 
weight of the body is supported 
equally on both legs. This keeps 
the shoulders level and produces a 
somewhat formal cast of draperies, 
as in Figs. 218 and 219, pp. 367, 368 ; 
but in this figure an easier posture 
is assumed. Resting mainly on the left foot, the lower part 
of the body of this Virgin of Paris is thrown slightly to the 




FlG. 221. — Paris. 



xiii GOTHIC SCULPTURE IN FRANCE 379 

left, while the right knee is naturally a little bent, the right arm 
and shoulder a little lowered, and the head inclined a little to 
the right. A rhythmical flow of lines is thus obtained, which 
is the more delightful because it is nowhere too pronounced. 
The drapery exhibits an effective mingling of simple nature and 
subtle art, especially where a portion of the mantle is cast over 
the left arm and falls vertically in a heavy fold to the foot of 
the figure. A line of twofold value is thus obtained which 
echoes the upright members of the architecture and enhances 
by contrast the beauty of the curves. , This pleasant artifice is 
indeed as old as the art of sculpture, having been employed, 
with a great variety of adjustment, in innumerable draped 
statues by the sculptors of antiquity. It is here employed 
in no spirit of imitation, but with a genuine sense of effective 
composition and of truth to nature, guided by tradition. 

It is worthy of notice that in the best Gothic sculpture, as in 
the best sculpture of antiquity, no trivial elaboration of textures 
occurs. The surfaces of these statues are generally rendered 
in the same manner throughout. Flesh and draperies are alike 
smoothly worked. In hair, wings, or embossed ornaments, a 
somewhat rougher texture may be given ; but not with any 
naturalistic intention or result. The Gothic carver, like the 
carver of ancient Greece, wisely limited his art to the monu- 
mental expression of form alone. 

If we now pause to consider what had by this time been 
accomplished, and reflect that in Italy Giotto was not yet born, 
that the sculptures of St. Denis and of Chartres antedate by 
nearly a century the art of Niccola Pisano, and that a consider- 
able time was yet to elapse before Italy should produce a figure 
equal in beauty and expression to this Virgin of the transept of 
Paris, we can hardly fail to be impressed by the worth of the 
Gothic schools of France, which at this early date had reached 
so high a state of development. 

Gothic sculpture is further remarkable as the first art 
the world had seen in which expression, rather than perfection 
of bodily form, was primarily sought. It cannot, indeed, 
be said that the sculpture of Greek antiquity was wholly 
wanting in expression ; but it is generally true that such as it 
had was subordinated to the quality of corporeal beauty. By 
expression I here mean some indication in face, movement, or 



3 8o GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

gesture of thought or emotion. We may not be able always to 
read with certainty the intended thoughts or feelings ; but we 
are, in the best Gothic sculptures, usually impressed with a sense 
that the minds of the personages represented are in some way 
exercised. And often we may divine, almost with certainty, the 
nature of the thought or sentiment which the artist endeavoured 
to make his figure express. What we have seen in the relief of 
the lintel of Senlis is but a conspicuous instance of that which 
is in some measure apparent in most of the best sculpture 
wrought by the hands of Gothic artists. And this development 
of expression as a chief animating motive of the art is a 
natural outcome of the mediaeval, as opposed to the ancient, 
genius ; of the Christian, as opposed to the pagan, ideals. In 
the arts of the primitive Christian times this quality of expression 
hardly appeared ; the requisite skill to produce it was wanting. 
Gothic sculpture was the first Christian art that was technically 
advanced enough to become a medium of varied expression. 

But though expression was a leading motive, it does not 
follow that bodily beauty was ignored by the Gothic artists. 
The production of such beauty was distinctly one of their 
aims. In the Gothic ideal, however, physical perfection did 
not count for everything ; many imperfections of form were, 
as we have seen, accepted, yet notwithstanding such imper- 
fections the general scheme of a Gothic design in sculpture, 
and the general rendering of it, rarely failed to be beautiful. 
The idea that this art was animated by an ascetic spirit which 
was incompatible with beauty is a mistaken one. The Christian 
doctrine of self-abnegation did not, with the mediaeval artists of 
the Ile-de-France, at all preclude the joyful contemplation of all 
that was regarded as becomingly fair; and although, in the 
representation of terrestrial beings, deformity was sometimes 
admitted, the illustration of the mediaeval conceptions of the 
supernatural led often to the production of exquisite types of 
beauty. But these ideal types were very different from those of 
classic art. The Christian sentiment naturally rejected every- 
thing that savoured of bodily charm alone. It demanded a 
fitting modesty and sobriety ; and, as a rule, it represented the 
clothed body only. 

The middle of the thirteenth century marks the technical 
culmination of Gothic sculpture. The carvers of this period had 



xiii GOTHIC SCULPTURE IN FRANCE 381 

mastered all of their material processes, and had brought the 
plastic rendering of form in the draped human figure to a degree 
of monumental perfection that had hardly ever been surpassed. 
During the second half of the same century some magnificent 
works in statuary were, indeed, wrought ; but none of them ex- 
hibit qualities superior to those of the Virgin of the north tran- 
sept of Paris. In these later works, however, it is interesting to 
see that some of the ancient conventions, especially in the treat- 
ment of hair, still survive, while there is a great advance in the 
natural and free arrangement of locks. Some of the statues 
of the portals of Reims, for instance, while finely suggestive of 
nature, have a rhythmical sequence of lines and masses, and 
an appropriately lithic character, which are reminiscent of the 
antique and yet are distinctly mediaeval. 

Passing from the carving of the human figure to that of other 
objects, we may begin with some consideration of the grotesque 
in Gothic art. The representation of physical beauty being with 
the Gothic carver subordinated to the purpose of enforcing the 
idea that the soul is superior to the body, and of illustrating the 
doctrine of the salvation of the soul by goodness of life, and the 
loss of the soul by evil life, it was necessary that beings and 
objects not beautiful should enter into his sculptured ornamental 
schemes. The evils that beset the lives and tempt the souls of 
men had to be in some way set forth no less than the human 
virtues and the heavenly ideals. The unhappy lot of the 
wicked had to be figured as well as the felicities of the good. 
Hence figures which embody the mediaeval notions of the 
monstrous and the grotesque are conspicuous elements in 
Gothic sculpture, especially after the beginning of the thir- 
teenth century. The grotesque, in the finest Gothic art, while 
often apparently introduced in a playful spirit, had thus pri- 
marily a serious purpose. 

The Romanesque imagery, consisting of fantastic creations 
of animal life which embodied distorted traditions of the Roman 
mythology, combined with forms originating in the rude imagi- 
nation of the Northern races, was largely rejected by the early 
Gothic artists. The imaginary creatures which they sometimes 
introduced were, for the most part, confined to the symbolic 
animals of the Bible — -such as those seen by St. John in the 
Apocalypse. Characteristic instances of these occur on the 



3*: 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



tympanums of the central doorways of Chartres and Le Mans. 1 
But by degrees other imaginary creations were introduced, until 
finally the grotesque animal life of the Gothic edifice became 
even more extended in range than that of the richest Roman- 
esque monuments had been. The sparing use of grotesque 
sculpture extended, indeed, through the twelfth century ; and 
the most of it had an ornamental character like that which was 
so abundantly introduced, during the same period, in the 
elaborately wrought borders of illuminated books. Figure 222, 




from a plinth of the central portal of the Cathedral of Senlis, is 
a typical example of such sculpture. The manner in which this 
human-headed and winged monster, with a tail branching into 
leafage, is gathered into the space between the mouldings is 
ingenious and effective. On such fanciful themes an endless 
variety of amusing changes were rung, and in them the fertility 
of the Gothic imagination is astonishingly manifest. 

During the thirteenth century, as I have said, the produc- 
tion of grotesque creatures became vastly more extended, and 
an imaginary fauna was created which, while it derived much 

1 Cf. Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Anitnaux, p. 20. 



xni GOTHIC SCULPTURE IN FRANCE 383 

from the older conceptions, embodied so much that was new 
as to constitute a distinctly Gothic class. This development 
grew primarily out of the old popular belief in the symbolic 
character of animals and imaginary creatures. 1 As symbols 
of human qualities, both good and evil, these animals, real 
and imaginary, were now wrought, for encouragement and for 
warning, upon the stones of the sacred edifice. A further 
purpose of this fauna, as of the sculpture of the human figure 
and the flora with which it was associated, apparently was that 
the Gothic monument might present a compendious illustration 
of the known world of creation, imagination, and faith. 

A remarkable quality of the grotesque creations of Gothic 
art is the close and accurate observation of nature which they, 
no less than the images of real things, display. However fabu- 
lous the imagined creature may be, the materials out of which 
he is made are derived from nature, and manifest a keen appre- 
ciation of animal structure. Vertebra or claw, wing or beak, 
eye or nostril, throat or paw, — every anatomical member 
displays an intimate familiarity with real organic form and 
function, and an imaginative sense of its possible combina- 
tions in creative design. 2 Take, for instance, one of the gro- 
tesque creatures (Fig. 223) which play among the leafage of the 
portal of the Virgin in the Cathedral of Paris, or a gargoyle 
of the cornice, or one of the strange beasts, or terrible demons 
of the parapet. Each of them seems animated with a living 
spirit, and has an almost startling appearance of reality. And 
besides this lifelikeness and functional truth, a highly orna- 
mental play of lines, and a subtle elaboration of finely modelled 
surfaces, are shown in these grotesque forms. In the early 
and early mature periods they exhibit a noticeable restraint of 
posture and movement ; extravagantly contorted forms and 
violent movements occur, for the most part, only in the decline 
of Gothic, when jaded sensibilities had ceased to appreciate the 
value of moderation in design. 

With the figure sculpture is associated, as we have seen 
(pp. 23-24), a vast profusion of other carved ornament, mostly 
composed of conventionalized leafage, which, wrought upon the 
leading structural members of the building, softens and enriches 

1 Cf. Cahier and Martin, Melanges d'Arckeologie. Paris. Tome 1, p. 106, et seq. 
- Cf. Ruskin, Modern Painters, vol. iii. p. 97 el seq. 



3«4 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



its rigid lines, hard angles, and broad surfaces with a beauty 
akin to that which in nature clothes the hardness of the frame- 
work of the earth. 

The carved foliate ornament of the Romanesque builders 




Fig. 223. — Paris. 



had been mainly derived from the ancient conventional designs 
of Roman and Byzantine art. These ancient motives had been 
worked over and variously modified, — in many cases rudely, 
in others with much ingenuity and skill, and often with lively 
fancy, — but for a long time with little original invention. 
Fresh motives, however, now began to appear, and the inspi- 



GOTHIC SCULPTURE IN FRANCE 



385 



ration of nature at length transformed the traditional elements 
into those living and beautiful forms of endless variety which 
are peculiar to Gothic art. 

The ornamental carvers of Burgundy appear to have been 
the first to break away from the older types of conventional 
leafage. The capitals of the porch of Vezelay, begun in 
1 132, and those of the nave of the nearly contemporaneous 
Cathedral of Autun, exhibit, in the acanthus-like foliage with 
which they are adorned, the 
fresh inspiration of nature, 
while at the same time they 
retain a large measure of the 
older conventional character. 
Figure 224 exhibits a frag- 
ment of this leafage from a 
capital of the nave of Autun. 
The springy lines and ener- 
getic forms of this fragment 
are in noticeable contrast to 
the more conventional Roman- 
esque foliate types. 1 But it 
was reserved for the artists of 
the Ile-de-France in the twelfth 
century to completely eman- 
cipate foliate sculpture from 
the Romanesque conventions, 
and to create wholly new types 
of the highest beauty. 

In the capitals and other 
carved members of the early 
transitional buildings of France two leading types of Roman- 
esque ornament survive, — one consisting of interlacing patterns, 
sometimes mingled with leafage and animal forms (Fig. 225), 
and the other a modified survival of the Corinthian leafage of 
antiquity (Fig. 226). To these may be added a third type, of 
less frequent occurrence in early Gothic art, consisting of 
human figures and grotesque animals almost exclusively. The 
interlacing patterns, being incapable of further development 




FlG. 224. — Vezelay. 



Cf. Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Sculpture, pp. iSj. 1S5. 



3 86 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



and unsuited to Gothic taste, soon fell into disuse. The orna- 
ment consisting of figures and animals was also soon abandoned ; 
but the Corinthianesque leafage naturally gave rise to those 
endless modifications which the suggestions caught from other 
forms of natural leafage soon prompted the fertile French 
carvers to effect. 

Among the earliest extant instances of Gothic foliate orna- 
ment which show the fresh influence of nature are those which 
adorn the capitals of the choirs of St. Germer-de-Fly, and the 
cathedrals of Noyon, Senlis, and Paris. The derivation of 
these capitals from the classic Corinthian type is clearly appar- 
ent, though their forms and proportions vary greatly, and all 




differ widely in appearance from the classic models. The 
influence of nature in the leafage of these capitals may not, at 
first sight, appear to be clearly marked. The broad leaf forms 
of the capitals of the great columns of the sanctuary of Noyon 
(Fig. 148, p. 310), for instance, show no very close resemblance 
to nature. They are, in fact, little more than refinements of 
traditional Romanesque types like that shown in Fig. 227, — a 
capital from the Abbaye-aux-Dames of Caen, which is merely 
a rude and simplified version of the classic Corinthian. But 
the refinements of form which mark this conventional leafage 
of Noyon, and render it superior to the Norman work, are 
plainly caught from nature. The vigorous curves and fine sur- 
face modellings which it exhibits are without parallel in the older 



GOTHIC SCULPTURE IN FRANCE 



3*7 



carvings wrought by workmen who derived little of their inspira- 
tion directly from living things. Almost countless varieties of 
capitals of the Corinthianesque type were produced in the 
Ile-de-France during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but 
in the leafage with which, in the early Gothic period, these 
capitals and other members were adorned, the broad forms of 
water-plants largely prevail, as in the example from Noyon 
(Fig. 148), in the capitals of the triforium of Senlis (Fig. 228), 
and those of the choir of Soissons (Fig. 61, p. 129). Richer 
leaf forms of monumental elegance are also abundant at the 







Fig. 227. — Abbaye-aux-Dames. 



same time, as in the triforium of Paris (Fig. 150, p. 312), and 
the triforium of Laon (Fig. 151, p. 314). 

In none of the earliest Gothic foliate ornament does the 
influence of nature do more than give a new and more vital 
beauty to the lines and modellings of the elements employed ; 
but soon a more direct study of nature is apparent, and, while 
the art still remains nobly conventional, a fuller suggestion of 
organic life, and even something of specific leaf form, occurs. 
Thus in Fig. 149, p. 311, the crockets are formed of unfolding 
leaflets which are unmistakably drawn from the fields. This 
sculpture dates from the third quarter of the twelfth century, 
and the same motive is repeated under man}- forms through 



388 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

several subsequent decades. The triforium of Paris alone ex- 
hibits a wide variety of kindred designs of the utmost beauty, 
all of which show that unexampled spirit of observation and 
invention which gave a living character to the Gothic edifice 
even in its smallest details. 

The capitals of the triforium of the nave of Paris may be 
considered as marking the culmination of Gothic art in foliate 
design. A general unity of character throughout the whole 




arcade coexists with that constant variation of details for which 
Gothic carving is unique. I have already (p. 315) referred to 
the variety in the profiling of the abaci of these capitals. The 
variety in their foliate ornamentation is still greater. The 
crockets under the angles of the abaci, of which five examples 
are given in Fig. 229, are of exquisite beauty and of highly 
architectural character. The inspiration of nature has com- 
pletely transformed the traditional motives ; but, while the 
ancient form of the volute is discarded, a reminiscence of it is 



GOTHIC SCULPTURE IN FRANCE 



389 



retained. No merely fanciful recasting of old elements could 
lead to the production of forms like these. The growing leaves 
of the forest and the field could alone supply the requisite models. 
But it required genius of a high order to lay hold of the natural 
elements without, at the same time, becoming entangled in a myr- 
iad of qualities and details that were unsuitable to the purposes 
of architectural ornament. To simplify nature and yet to pre- 
serve what is most expressive, to bring out in sculpture the full 
value of what nature suggests, and also to secure a lithic and mon- 
umental character, requires the most perfectly trained artistic 
powers. And such powers, in respect to foliate ornament, were 







\^ s^ii '' >' 



Fig. 229. 



never so admirably developed, before or since, as they were by 
the French sculptors of the twelfth century. The mind of the 
carver of this time was so imbued with monumental instincts 
that he felt no temptation to imitate with realistic intention the 
finer minutice of leaf or stem. These he well understood were 
incompatible with the purposes of his art. But to catch a new 
grace from expanding bud, or broad leaf outline, his eye was 
ever alert. It is interesting to notice that the plant forms first 
employed by the Gothic artists for ornamental motives were 
those of springtime, — the opening buds and newly formed 
leaves of familiar plants : fern, arum, hepatica, plantain, and 
many others. It was both natural and appropriate that this 
spring herbage, more than any other, should stimulate the 



39 o GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

fancy of the men in whose hands the Gothic style itself was 
taking form ; for in the leafage of spring there is an expression 
of living energy which accords, as nothing else does, with the 
vital organic spirit of this new architecture. 

Gothic sculpture, even of this purely ornamental kind, 
always manifests a feeling of pleasure in natural beauty ; and 
it is the first sculpture in the history of the arts which, in foli- 
ate ornament, exhibits this feeling in its fulness. The ancient 
regard for the beauty of vegetation, as far as the witness of art 
attests, was far more limited and subordinated to interest in the 
human form. Special attention to the beauties of leafage, or 
much expression of keen enjoyment of its organic life, will, as a 
rule, be sought for in vain in the arts of antiquity. Antique 
foliate ornamentation is usually in comparison cold and formal 
in its studied curves and surfaces ; but in Gothic foliage a keen 
delight in every beauty of living growth is constantly manifest. 

To this subtle feeling for nature and wise acceptance of the 
limitations of art, the French foliate carver joined a finished 
delicacy of execution equal to that displayed in the statuary. 
No rough tooling is visible in the French art of the twelfth cen- 
tury. The surfaces are often finished so that hardly any trace 
of the chisel can be detected. The ornamental carving of the 
Cathedral of Paris is worked with a delicacy that is unsurpassed 
by that of the frieze of the Parthenon or the shrine of Orcagna. 

The finest characteristics of this art are exhibited in the capi- 
tal (Fig. 150, p. 312), from the triforium of Paris. The Gothic 
carver's enjoyment of nature, his powers of abstraction and 
adaptation, his genius in design, and his skill in execution are 
all fully manifest here. The Corinthianesque motive is appar- 
ent throughout the ornamentation of this capital, though the 
elements, like the form of the entire member, are fundamentally 
changed. This ornamentation consists of four great compound 
leaves rising against the bell, one under each angle of the 
abacus, with four lesser leaves in the intervals, one under each 
side of the abacus. The grooved midribs of the greater leaves 
(which terminate in crockets) take vigorous springing curves 
which rise from the neck moulding and have an expression of 
inherent energy as if supporting the corners of the abacus. 
The forms of the leaves are simple, each consisting of a central 
member with a five-lobed leaflet on either side of it. In outline 



xiii GOTHIC SCULPTURE IN FRANCE 391 

they are full of grace and spirit, without any complete imitation 
of real leaf forms. In respect to coordination of elements, the 
forms are massed with exquisite art — the deep depressions and 
sharp incisions producing effective contrasts to the broadly 
lighted parts. And while symmetrically arranged they have no 
rigid or mechanical formality of arrangement. In Gothic art, 
as in nature itself, symmetry is never absolute as in a geometric 
figure. The balanced parts of every symmetrical ornamental 
scheme always exhibit vital irregularities. This is true also, 
of course, of ancient and early mediaeval art; but it is more 
emphatically true of Gothic. No deep undercutting or any 
excessive projections occur. The form of the bell is strictly 
preserved, and no unmodelled masses or unfinished forms any- 
where appear. The finish is of extreme refinement — every 
ridge is smoothly rounded, and every depression is carefully 
hollowed. 

But this superbly monumental type of carving did not con- 
tinue to be produced long after the beginning of the thirteenth 
century. A decline in true artistic feeling was setting in, and 
with this decline the interest in nature began by degrees to allure 
the sculptor away from the severely conventional treatment, and 
to lead him into a path of naturalism which was incompatible 
with the best architectural effect. As we approach the west 
end of the nave of Paris, a marked increase of direct likeness 
to nature in the foliate ornamentation is noticeable, until archi- 
tectural fitness is almost lost in the capitals of the chapel of the 
catechists in the south tower. Here, in the southeast angle, 
the vaulting shaft has a capital (Fig. 230) in which the orna- 
mental motive is wrought out with an approximation to literal 
exactness. It is hard to qualify our admiration for so beautiful 
a work ; but it must be felt that this leafage is not, so much as 
that of the former example, an integral part of the capital. It 
has too much the appearance of real leaves laid up against the 
bell. The undercutting is so deep that a look of detachment 
is in some places suggested which impairs its architectural 
expression. The plant form from which this ornament is 
derived is apparently the water-cress, and the carver has repro- 
duced with much fidelity, though on a greatly enlarged scale, 
the main characteristics of the natural growth. But apart from 
the defects which here result from a partial forgetfulness of 



39- 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



monumental exigencies in enthusiasm for natural beauty, this 
sculpture has those merits which are peculiar to the works of 
the best Gothic carvers. 

Among capitals which, though less finely wrought, show 
great beauty and variety of naturalistic design, are those of the 
Cathedral of Laon, of which Fig. 151, p. 314, from the triforium 
of the south transept, is one of the most characteristic. The 




Fig. 230 



variety of beautiful ornamental foliate motives to be seen in this 
triforium almost exceeds that to be found elsewhere, except in 
the Cathedral of Paris and the Church of St. Leu d'Esserent. 
They invariably show a keen enjoyment of nature and wonder- 
ful skill in the architectural adaptation of natural leaf types. 
The types of Laon are quite distinct from those of Paris ; 
but they are hardly inferior to the best of those which that 
cathedral presents. 

Leaving now the capitals, we find in the running leaf orna- 



GOTHIC SCULPTURE IN FRANCE 



393 



ments of the jambs and archivolts of the portals of the west 
facade of Paris examples of equally beautiful work. An illus- 
tration of this leafage is given in Fig. 223, p. 384, and Fig. 231 
exhibits another bit of characteristic beauty. The sense of 
nature conveyed, notwithstanding the frankly conventional 
treatment, is remarkable ; it is a masterly rendering of the 
expressive lines and forms without any undue naturalism. 




Fig. 231. — Paris. 



In the carving of the triforium string-course (Fig. 232) and 
that of the cornice of the exterior of the nave (Fig. 233) of the 
Cathedral of Amiens, the same monumental expression of foliate 
life is noticeable in leafage of a different kind. The springy 
contours and finished modellings of these examples are without 
parallel in the ornamental art of any other style or period. 
This foliate sculpture of Paris and Amiens is of the most dis- 
tinctly Gothic type. It is the farthest removed from classic 
types, the most suggestive of the beauty of nature, and at the 



394 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



same time it is all based, as we have before remarked, on 
ancient ornamental schemes of composition. No monotonous 



• ••V,. ■ *tf^i"»l&\\ . ,.•.-■■*•'*>'• : -**^- 




Fig. 232.— Amiens. 

reproduction of formal patterns, or wearisome repetition of 
the same elements, is ever found in Gothic art. A perpetual 




Fig. 233. — Amiens. 

variety of living forms is invariably maintained, though there 
is a regular recurrence of sufficiently similar elements. Vitality 
and freedom are governed by order and sequence of design 



xin GOTHIC SCULPTURE IN FRANCE 395 

down to the smallest details, as in the bunches of berries which 
alternate with the leaves of the string-course (Fig. 232); and in 
Fig. 231 it will be seen that the berries of the bunch in the 
hand of the figure fall into a regular series following the natu- 
ral spiral arrangement around the supporting stem. We have 
in this another illustration of the kinship to Greek art which 
this sculpture shows in so many other points. 

Such, with almost infinite variety, is French Gothic foliate 
sculpture. Its finest types, illustrated by the capitals of Paris 
and the string-courses of Amiens, hardly appear after the 
second quarter of the thirteenth century. From this time 




iQ^MS, 



Fig. 234. — Noyon. 

onward the direct imitation of nature became too much the 
artist's aim, and the necessary architectural adaptation was more 
and more lost sight of. A few further illustrations of the 
change from the one condition to the other may afford by con- 
trast a better understanding of the qualities which characterize 
the art at its best. Figure 234, a portion of a string-course 
from the later works at Noyon, shows, in a marked degree, the 
tendency to over-naturalism which had strongly set in by the 
middle of the thirteenth century. There is much beauty in 
this design, and its execution is excellent ; but it has lost 
the nobly conventional character that marks the strings of 
Amiens. The carver no longer possesses the power of monu- 
mental abstraction. He reproduces too literally and completely 
the finer details of nature. The close relation which had 



396 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

formerly been maintained between structural members and 
their carved ornaments was soon lost under this over-natural- 
istic treatment. In the late, though still beautiful, capital (Fig. 
154, p. 318) from the arcade of one of the choir chapels of 
Amiens, for instance, the leaf ornament which adorns the lower 
part of the bell has no integral connection with it. It is like a 
cluster of freshly gathered leaves applied to its surface. The 
foot-stalk has even the natural enlargement at the base, and the 
peculiar pointed form beneath, which are found in nature where 
a leaf is torn from its parent stem. The bell surface of this 
capital is independently developed from about the middle down- 
ward — a considerable portion of it being unoccupied by the or- 
nament. The leafage of the other capitals of the arcade to which 
this example belongs is of great variety and beauty, and notwith- 
standing similar defects, it is yet far more meritorious than the 
leafage of the still later Gothic, in which a trivial naturalism 
occurs unaccompanied by any expression of the vitality and 
beauty of nature. Conspicuous examples of this debased style 
occur in the later capitals of Nevers ; and it is noteworthy that 
whereas, as already remarked, the early Gothic leafage is that of 
springtime, the leafage of this latest Gothic is the dried leafage 
of Autumn. It is a curious fact, also, that in the intervening 
style, that of the mature Gothic of the second half of the thir- 
teenth century, the ornament employed is derived from the fully 
grown leafage of summer-time, as in the porches of Chartres and 
the later portions of the nave of Reims. Of this summer leafage 
the delicate running ornaments (Fig. 235) in the archivolts of the 
Porte Rouge of the Cathedral of Paris are among the best 
examples. The wild rose is here reproduced with about as 
much literal likeness to nature as would be possible in sculpture. 
It is not without ornamental effect; but it can bear no com- 
parison for effectiveness and monumental fitness with the con- 
ventional leafage of the twelfth century. There is thus a vast 
difference between the abstract naturalism which gives life and 
beauty to the early Gothic foliate ornament, and the imitative 
naturalism which belongs to the decline of Gothic art. 

The nature of the difference is not, however, enough appre- 
ciated ; a clear apprehension of the meaning of convention in 
art appears to be rare. The conventional character which 
distinguishes the work of every great artistic epoch does not 






GOTHIC SCULPTURE IN FRANCE 



397 



result from any arbitrary purpose : it has its foundation in the 
nature of things ; and the productions of the true artist become 
conventional (as remarked in Chapter I. p. 24) through an 
instinctive and unconscious obedience to the conditions under 
which he works. 




Fig. 235. — Paris. 



In Chapter I. the quality of breadth was mentioned as among 
the leading characteristics of Gothic sculpture. This ought to 
be emphasized ; for there is no quality for which this sculpture 
is more remarkable. Multitudinous as are the details which 
enter into the carved ornamentation of any great cathedral front, 
there is rarely any scattered effect in the parts or in the total 
scheme. An harmonious relationship of mass to mass, from 



39 8 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

largest to smallest, is maintained. Such breadth is, indeed, a 
fundamental quality of all good art; but its manifestation is 
perhaps more remarkable in Gothic architecture than in any- 
other because of the numerous subdivisions through which it 
has to be preserved. 

The attainment of this breadth by the Gothic designers seems 
the more remarkable when we consider the individual freedom of 
the vast numbers of men who were employed upon the mediaeval 
buildings. Of this freedom the work everywhere bears evidence. 
The range of invention in the designing of figures and orna- 
ments is, in any given case, far too wide to have been compassed 
by a single mind. There was, of course, a master builder, or 
architect, whose general scheme was followed ; but there was 
no individual who, like a modern architect, strictly determined 
every detail. The conditions were all different from those of 
modern times. The bands of workmen, by whom these great 
buildings were wrought, and who went about from place to place 
wherever important architectural works were to be undertaken, 
had been trained in the great monastic schools. In these schools 
they had learned not only their craft, but also how to work 
together for common ends. There existed among them a strong 
esprit de corps ; and each individual in the fraternity felt the 
ardour, the pleasure, and the freedom in his work that are in- 
spired by mutual confidence and a common enthusiasm. So per- 
fect was the concord of feeling, so imbued were all the members 
with the general principles of their art, that individual freedom 
had no tendency to produce insubordination in design. 

The art schools of the Middle Ages were art schools in 
the truest sense. They were schools of practice where the 
novice learned his art by taking part, according to his capacity, 
in the actual construction and adornment of great architectural 
monuments. He was, of course, taught such general principles 
as had been acquired by tradition or derived from experience ; 
but fresh experiment was ever affording fresh instruction to 
pupils and masters. A great public work in progress created 
naturally a great school of art ; and so far as concerns artistic 
production no other kind of school has yet been of much avail. 

One conspicuous element of effect in the sculpture of France 
in the Middle Ages is now almost entirely lost, and hence the 
aspect of even the best-preserved examples is very different 



xni GOTHIC SCULPTURE TN FRANCE 399 

from that which they must originally have had. The colour with 
which these sculptures were enlivened has, for the most part, 
wholly disappeared. In most cases only a few faint traces 
of the original colouring is now, in sheltered places, to be 
found. But there are enough of these to show that colour was 
extensively employed. Such traces may be found in the portals 
of Senlis, Paris, and many other churches. In a few instances 
something like the whole colour scheme has been preserved, 
though in a much defaced condition. In the Sainte Chapelle of 
St-Germer-de-Fly, for instance, several statues, dating from about 
the middle of the thirteenth century, may be seen. These are 
exceptional in respect to the amount of colouring remaining on 
them ; and they are very beautiful. They show plainly what 
was the character of the mediaeval colour applied to figure 
sculpture. It corresponds, as we should naturally expect, with 
the colouring of contemporaneous illuminated MSS. The heads, 
hands, and feet are of creamy white, the cheeks being slightly 
reddened. The eyes are of a pale blue or brown colour with 
the pupil black. Hair and eyebrows are black, brown, or 
golden ; and the draperies are mostly red, blue, and purple, 
with white and black; while ornaments, as jewels and embroid- 
eries, are gilded. Foliage and animals were coloured in an 
equally conventional way, as in the ornamental borders of the 
MSS., with no attempt at realistic effect. It was not until a 
later period, that sculpture was coloured in imitation of nature, 
as in the sixteenth-century choir screen of the Cathedral of 
Amiens. The earlier colouring is so like what we know of the 
colouring of Greek sculpture that we may perhaps reasonably 
believe the ancient tradition to have remained unbroken down 
to the thirteenth century. 



CHAPTER XIV 

SCULPTURE OF THE TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH CENTURIES 
IN ENGLAND AND OTHER COUNTRIES 

In the architecture of the twelfth century in England figure 
sculpture is rarely met with, and where such sculpture does 
occur, it is naturally of the undeveloped and inexpressive, 
though often monumental, sort that was common to the whole 
of Europe before 1150. The French custom of enriching the 
portals of churches with statuary and reliefs was not generally 
followed in England. The difference, in this respect, which we 
find between the western portals of Vezelay and Autun and the 
nearly contemporaneous portals of Lincoln Cathedral is a dif- 
ference which holds, in the majority of cases, between conti- 
nental and English buildings through the whole period of 
Gothic art. 

Among very early examples of figure sculpture in England 
is the band of reliefs which extends across that portion of the 
west front of Lincoln which was erected about 1090. This 
sculpture (Fig. 236), though coarse in execution and wanting 
in expression, has, nevertheless, a good deal of merit in point 
of architectural effectiveness ; and the same may be said of 
other similar works ; as, for instance, that of the so-called 
Prior's Gateway at Ely, which, though later and richer, is not 
very different in character. Hardly anything of more impor- 
tance occurs in England until near the middle of the thirteenth 
century, when suddenly, in the west front of the Cathedral of 
Wells, we get one of the richest assemblages of sculptures ever 
gathered into an architectural monument. These sculptures 
differ widely from any that we have thus far noticed. They 
appear to have been wrought by an insular, and even a local, 
school, and yet a school that must have had some connection 
with the schools of the Continent. Many admirable qualities 
appear in these figures, though none of them show either the 

400 



SCULPTURE IN OTHER COUNTRIES 



401 



artistic power, or the beauties of form and execution, which are 
characteristic of the Gothic sculpture of France. Unlike that, 
the sculpture at Wells has little relation to the building itself. 
It is nowhere an integral part of the architectural scheme. 
It does not naturally emboss the structural forms. The jambs, 
archivolts, and set-offs of the buttresses are everywhere crowded 
with niches, canopies, and panellings for its protection and dis- 
play. The facade seems to exist for the sake of the sculpture, 
being, as we have seen (p. 230), little more than a vast screen, 
with no logical connection 
with the building behind it. 
As if to enlarge the space 
for the sculpture the door- 
ways are reduced in size to 
even less than the usual di- 
mensions of doorways in Eng- 
land. The springing of the 
archivolts of the central por- 
tal is below the level of the 
base mouldings of the wall, 
and the capitals of the jambs 
are within reach of the hand. 
Every relation of ornament 
to structure, such as is pe- 
culiar to true Gothic archi- 
tecture, is disregarded. 

Yet the sculpture itself is 
both grand and impressive, 

and much of it has considerable beauty. In grace and senti- 
ment it is indeed inferior to the sculpture of the Ile-de-France ; 
and it also exhibits less of those classic elements of design 
which we have noticed in the works of the best Gothic carvers. 
Its sculptors appear to have been more independent of tradi- 
tion, and their work is correspondingly wanting in some of those 
finer characteristics which seem to depend largely upon tradi- 
tional culture. But, on the other hand, a sense of nature seems 
to have had a large place in the mind of the artists; while, at 
the same time, they have kept well within the bounds of monu- 
mental art in the treatment of forms. The so-called statue of 
Christiana (Fig. 237) is a good example of their work. It is 




Fig. 236. — Lincoln. 



402 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



m 



grandly architectural in its severe lines ; but the draperies, while 
showing a strong sense of reality, are singularly primitive in 
character. Little of the rhythmical 
beauty of contemporaneous French 
works, like the statue of the Virgin 
in the doorway of the north transept 
of the Cathedral of Paris (Fig. 221, 
p. 378) appears here. The treatment 
of the folds is almost as archaic as that 
of the statues of St. Denis and Chartres, 
which are a century earlier in date. But 
in comparison with such works as these 
this drapery shows the inspiration of 
reality in a more marked degree, though 
it is not without evidence of traditional 
influence, which in this figure appears 
in the zigzag edges of the folds beneath 
the right arm. The stiff and awkward 
forms of this right arm and hand are 
singular archaisms for work of so ad- 
vanced a period as the middle of the 
lJrj'1 '1511 thirteenth century. Yet for simplicity, 
veracity, and monumental grandeur this 
sculpture must be ranked high among 
the artistic achievements of the Middle 
Ages. It is vigorous and noble art, 
[ though wanting in the ideal refinement 
and beauty of the contemporaneous 
French work. 1 

Perhaps the sculpture in England 
next in importance to that of Wells is 
found in the reliefs of the Presbytery 



T ll ■■ "Jf&S:' ''^MHIII 1 Mr. Parker, in his Introduction to Gothic 

Architecture, p. 109, says : " It is scarcely possible 
to overrate the value and importance of the extraor- 

p IG Wells dinary series of sculptures with which the west 

front of Wells Cathedral is enriched ; they are 
superior to any others known of the same period in any part of Europe." Such 
exaggerated overestimates of native works have hitherto done much to prevent the 
growth in England of an enlightened appreciation of the best artistic products of the 
Middle Ages. 



xiv SCULPTURE IN ENGLAA r D AND OTHER COUNTRIES 403 

(named, from the subject of these works, the Angel Choir) of 
Lincoln, which date from the second half of the thirteenth cen- 
tury. The position of this sculpture on the spandrels of the tri- 
forium is exceptional. It is so high above the pavement that it 
can be seen with difficulty, both because of its distance from the 
eye and because the width of the aisle is not sufficient to allow it 
to be viewed otherwise than very obliquely. The light, too, is 
unfavourable, since it falls directly from the opposite clerestory. 
A good light for sculpture, and for relief sculpture especially, is 
that which falls either from above, casting shadows downward, 
or from one side, throwing shadows to the right or left. This 
full front light on the reliefs of the Angel Choir reduces the 
shadows to a minimum, and destroys the effect of all delicate 
modelling. It is true that some side light also falls in from the 
great eastern window; but the modellings that might thus other- 
wise be brought out by this light are largely neutralized by the 
stronger clerestory lights. This sculpture has no considerable 
merit, though it has been extravagantly praised. 1 It consists of 
a series of figures of angels in high relief, with wings spread 
so as to fill the spandrels, playing on musical instruments. Some 
of them appear to be symbolical, but their meaning is uncertain. 
The work is that of a mature school, the forms have some grace, 
and are well modelled; but they exhibit no conspicuous qualities 
which, should entitle them to high rank as works of art. The 
south door of this presbytery, which has more of the character 
of a French Gothic doorway than is common in England, has in 
its tympanum more effective sculpture, though it is too much 
mutilated to admit of a satisfactory judgment of its original 
merits. Among the statues placed against the buttresses of the 
same choir, those of Edward I and Eleanor his queen are notice- 
able for graceful composition and appropriate monumental 
character. But these, like the reliefs of the interior and of the 
tympanum of the south portal, are works of a late period, when 
the vigour and inspiration of mediaeval art were largely spent. 
I am not aware that there is much other architectural sculpture 



1 Mr. Cockerell, in the Appendix to his Monograph on the Sculpture of Wells, 
says: "The sculpture of the Angel Choir is displayed with most admired learning 
and taste, and may not only challenge, in these respects, the works of sculpture or 
painting of any country in the thirteenth or succeeding century, but will possibly be 
found to establish a priority of merit in the English school, hitherto little suspected." 



404 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

of importance in England dating from the thirteenth century. 
It is possible that a careful search might discover some other 
works of equal, or even superior, merits ; the number must, how- 
ever, be relatively small. Of the statues which once adorned 
the west front of Lichfield, not one remains, while those which 
occupy the niches high up in the spandrels and gables of Peter- 
borough are too far out of sight to be judged of. 

The rare employment of figure sculpture in connection with 
architecture, and the character of such sculpture as occurs, show 
that there were not in England, in the Middle Ages, any native 
schools of sculpture comparable to those which arose in France 
in connection with the development of Gothic architecture. 
The Anglo-Norman and English workmen, as we have already 
had occasion to note, were not, as a rule, such highly gifted 
artists as were the great monumental sculptors of the Ile-de- 
France. 

The same lack of vigorous and original artistic gifts is mani- 
fest in the foliate carving that was produced in England during 
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. While examples of great 
beauty sometimes occur, there was little in the early English 
pointed architecture of that growth of beautiful conventional 
types of foliation inspired by nature which so strongly marked 
the early Gothic carving of France. In many instances the 
influence of nature is, indeed, apparent ; but a spontaneous 
and general movement in carving characterized by a consistent, 
varied, and skilful adaptation of natural organic forms leading 
to a new and living style of ornament, hardly had place in 
England. The early types of foliation which occur are con- 
ventionalized in a very different way from that in which the 
contemporaneous French types are conventionalized. Anglo- 
Norman art has what may be called an artificially conventional 
character; it manifests a lack of sensitiveness to those finer 
characteristics of nature which may be effectively expressed 
in monumental art. Traditional elements, such as were 
common to the whole of Europe in the twelfth century, were 
retained with less progressive modification than they received 
in France. A carved lintel, built into the wall of the north 
transept of Southwell, exhibits an imbricated design with con- 
ventional suggestions of foliation (Fig. 238) which will be recog- 
nized as agreeing in character with the leafage most frequently 



xiv SCULPTURE IN ENGLAND AND OTHER COUNTRIES 405 

met with in so-called early English ornamentation. Of such 
traditional elements the Anglo-Norman designers made varied 
use ; but such invention as they exercised never quite eliminated 
their artificial character. The so-called stiff-leaved foliage of 
the early times gives little evidence of a refined artistic sense 
modifying the traditional conventions. 

It is noticeable that the earliest foliate sculpture in England 
is the best, and among the finest examples are those of the 
capitals of Bishop Hugh's choir and transept at Lincoln. Of 
these none are better than those of the triforium. Yet notwith- 
standing their beauty, the trefoil leafage with which they are 




Fig. 238. 

adorned shows some of those peculiarities which I have char- 
acterized as artificial. In the capital, Fig. 186, it will be noticed, 
for instance, that the mid-rib is a flat-sided, sharp-edged member, 
and that the edges of the leaflets are also sharp and hard. These 
peculiarities will be more clearly apparent in Fig. 239, where C is 
the form of the section through AB. This fillet-like treatment of 
leaf ribs, leaf stalks, and leaf edges is highly unpleasing to the 
eye of a beholder who is familiar with the delicate rounding of 
such details in the sculpture of France ; yet, in contrast with 
the circular abacus and the rounded profiles of England, it 
sometimes has a good effect. In itself, however, it is an ugly 
convention. The power of conventionalizing natural forms with- 
out needlessly violating their character, the Anglo-Norman orna- 
mentist did not possess in a high degree. I must not, however. 



406 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



seem to affirm that the foliate sculpture of the early pointed 
architecture of England was altogether devoid of such expres- 
sion of the beauty of nature as is compatible with the proper 
conventions of ornamental art. In the earliest times it had a 
great deal of such expression. The leafage of the capital we 
have just referred to is, notwithstanding the artificial peculiarities 
which I have criticised, very exquisite in expression of the vigour 
of growth in living vegetation, and of the graceful leaf outlines 
which had charmed the eye of the 
designer. The manner, too, in which 
these leaf forms follow each other 
around the bell, bending with pliant 
grace against the moulding of the 
abacus, is worthy of all praise. There 
are numerous other beautiful vari- 
eties of conventional leafage to be 
found on the capitals of the early 
choir and transept of Lincoln, and 
in many of them an equally fine 
feeling for nature is manifest. But 
-b this feeling does not long survive 
\\ / ™~;yf in the art schools of England, and 

^*f$' its expression is never wholly unim-^ 

paired by the artificial peculiarities 
just noticed. 

After the first quarter of the 
thirteenth century, the artificial char- 
acteristics become more conspicuous, 
and the expression of beauty caught 
from nature is less apparent. A 
good illustration of this later phase 
of design is afforded by the leafage of the capitals of the 
triforium of the nave of the same building (Fig. 240). Here 
the leafage takes the form of crockets, which, as we have 
already seen, p. 338, have little propriety in connection with 
the round abacus. Its lines are still in a measure graceful 
and suggestive of the energy of vegetable growth ; but the 
fillet-like ribs are unpleasantly multiplied, and the leaf stalks, 
instead of dying away in the mass of the bell, — as in the 
early capital of the east transept, — remain salient and flat- 




- / 




xiv SCULPTURE IN ENGLAND AND OTHER COUNTRIES 407 

sided down to the neck moulding. Of the fine surface flexures 
shown in the earlier work there is scarcely any trace in this 
artificial foliage of the nave. 

In the interior of Wells CathedraHoliate sculpture (Fig. 191, 
p. 344) of exceptional character and peculiar beauty occurs. Here 
we have apparently a mingling of Anglo-Norman and French 




Fig. 240. — Lincoln. 



influences. The excessive projection of the crockets would seem 
to be Anglo-Norman, while the fine surface modelling and the 
delicate rounding of the leaf stalks and leaf ribs is French. The 
fine arrangement of the masses and composition of the curves, 
and the graceful, flowing, and vital lines, give these capitals 
remarkable beauty, though the extravagant salience of their 
crockets injures their architectural expressiveness. 

The carving of imaginary and grotesque creatures, though 



408 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

by no means without examples in England, was, like other 
sculpture, less general than in France. Nevertheless, instances 
occur which show that a lively fancy and vigorous executive 
skill were often exercised in their production. Among the best 
carvings of this kind were, apparently, those of buttresses of 
Bishop Hugh's choir of Lincoln. They have, however, been 
sadly worn by time and damaged by mutilation, so that little 
now remains of them. 

On the whole, sculptured enrichment in the pointed archi- 
tecture of England presents no parallel whatever to that of 
France. To the builders of the island sculpture was not 
felt to be an indispensable element of design. Many of their 
most important monuments are almost entirely devoid of it. 
Beverley, Salisbury, and Westminster Abbey, for instance, are 
singularly bald in this respect. The naked moulded capital, 
which almost exclusively prevails throughout the interiors of 
these and many other great churches, gives a painfully monoto- 
nous effect ; and the few isolated statues and reliefs which occur 
on the outsides have little influence on the general aspect, or 
little beauty or impressiveness when viewed in detail. The great 
Gothic edifice of France, with its marvellous wealth of sculpture, 
never had any counterpart in England. 

While there was a good deal of activity in the production of 
sculpture in Germany during the early Middle Ages, it appears 
to have been confined for the most part to works on a small scale, 
such as reliefs on pulpits and other ecclesiastical furniture, and 
to the enrichment of small architectural members. Monumental 
figure sculpture, as an architectural adjunct, was rare in the 
country before the thirteenth century, and was not extensively 
produced at any time. A range of statues seldom flanks the 
portals, or extends across the facades, of German churches. 
Such figure sculpture as sometimes occurs in these situations 
has a strong resemblance to the later Gothic sculpture of 
France, though it often, at the same time, bears a distinctly 
German stamp. Among the most exceptional, and among the 
finest, German fronts enriched by statuary is that of the Lieb- 
frauenkirche of Trier. The portal here, though round arched, 
presents, at first glance, a very Gothic aspect with its archivolt 
of six orders crowded with statuettes, its tympanum carved in 



xiv SCULPTURE IN ENGLAND AND OTHER COUNTRIES 409 

relief, and its splayed jambs adorned with figures in the full 
round. This sculpture is designed and executed with grace 
and skill, and may compare favourably with contemporaneous 
carving in France, such as that of the portals of the transepts 
of Chartres. It lacks, however, the supreme expressional and 
monumental qualities of the best French work, and its relation- 
ship to the architecture is less perfect. The statues of this 
portal are not placed each against a shaft in the jamb, as in 
a French portal of the best period, but are set in niche-like 
compartments which gives them a more independent character. 
The severity of pose and of treatment which marks the finest 
architectural statuary is to some extent wanting here. This 
independent and over-free treatment is still more marked in the 
figures of the upper parts of this facade, which, instead of being 
ranged in grand subordination to the architectural lines, are put 
upon pedestals and corbels so as to have comparatively little 
architectural relationship and expression. The magnificent 
breadth of the total structural and ornamental scheme of a 
great French Gothic facade could never be attained on the 
principle here followed. The famous statues of Strasburg 
exhibit the same characteristics in an even more marked de- 
gree. They were evidently inspired by the sculptures of Reims; 
but in disregard of monumental restraints they exceed anything 
to be found at Reims. These figures show a somewhat mincing 
and sentimental character and, also, a degree of realism in the 
treatment of drapery which became a marked quality of the 
later German sculpture so fully exemplified in the admirable, 
though not monumental, works of Adam Kraft and Peter 
Vischer. 

The distinctly German types of foliate sculpture were, like 
those of the human figure, of late development. They are char- 
acterized by a more or less elaborately crinkled treatment of 
leafage ; and they suggest, as do the later types of leaf ornament 
in France, the dried foliage of autumn rather than the broadly 
undulating leaf forms of summer-time. Characteristic examples 
occur in the crockets of the gables, and in the string-courses of 
Cologne cathedral, as well as in the capitals of the same build- 
ing. The over-naturalism which belongs to the late foliate 
sculpture of France reappears here with increased emphasis. 
In capitals all expression of unity with the bell, or of sympathy 



410 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

with its functional office, is wanting, as in Fig. 207, p. 354. The 
architectural expression and appropriateness of the early leafage, 
which was largely derived from the French models, is almost 
wholly wanting. 

In Italy there was no figure sculpture of a distinctly native 
type before the time of Niccola Pisano about the middle of the 
thirteenth century ; that is to say, not until considerably after 
the epoch of the most splendid development of Gothic sculpture 
in France. The vigorous carvings of the Lombard workmen 
never advanced beyond the rudeness of a primitive state, and 
were not native Italian products. The Italo-Byzantine carvings 
of the twelfth century give little promise of the great achieve- 
ments which the early Renaissance was to produce. The reliefs 
of the portals of the Baptistery of Parma, dating from the close 
of this century, and kindred works which are numerous, have, 
indeed, much ornamental merit based on the common traditions 
of Byzantine and Roman art ; but in expression or in form they 
show no special excellence. When the art of sculpture in Italy 
began to assume a native stamp, and to become important, it 
was, from the first, different in character from the transalpine 
Gothic sculpture. This difference is largely due to the fact 
that it was the product of individual sculptors working indepen- 
dently, rather than of schools or guilds. The name of the carver 
of almost every important statue or relief in Italy is known. To 
the great companies of workmen who in France wrought together 
for a common end — each one content to do his best work without 
thought of individual fame — there was, at this time, hardly any 
parallel in Italy. And being so much an individual product, 
the work of the Italian sculptor was naturally more independent 
of architectural connection than that of the Gothic sculptor in 
France. That intimate union of sculpture with architecture, which 
was so constant in Gothic art, was never attained south of the 
Alps. The Italian regarded sculpture as something to be admired 
by itself, rather than as an architectural auxiliary. Thus it is 
that in Italy statues, instead of being ranged in broad lines 
subordinated to the architectural scheme, and connected with 
structural members, are commonly placed in isolated positions. 
They are set in niches, or under ornamental canopies which 
have not, as Gothic canopies have, any constructive function 
or expression, as in the facade of the Spina Chapel at Pisa. 



xiv SCULPTURE IN ENGLAND AND OTHER COUNTRIES 411 

Reliefs are not, as in Gothic, confined to the tympanums of 
portals, but are carved often on broad wall surfaces, as at 
Orvieto and in the Campanile of Florence. Thus, though 
effectively placed for its own display, sculpture in Italy never 
became associated with the structural system in such a way as 
to form an apparently integral part of it. 

In Italian sculpture two elements curiously mingle : the one, 
that of expression, in which there is a resemblance to the north- 
ern Gothic ; and the other pertaining to form marked by char- 
acteristics derived from the study of the Roman antique. Of 
these two elements sometimes one and sometimes the other pre- 
dominates, according to the individual genius of the artist. For 
instance, in the famous sculptures of the pulpit of the Baptis- 
tery of Pisa, by Niccola Pisano, the inspiration of Greco-Roman 
models is clearly manifest in the treatment of forms, while of 
expression there is little. In the art of Niccola the spirit of the 
classic revival is already manifest, and the Gothic spirit is, for 
the most part, wanting. The figure of the vigorous young 
athlete, carved on one of the angles of this pulpit, exhibits, in 
its pose and anatomical modelling, a purely classic influence 
which is far removed from Gothic feeling. And it is worthy of 
notice that the classic character of this work differs fundamen- 
tally from the classic character discernible in Gothic sculpture. 
In the one case it results from direct imitation of ancient models, 
in the other it seems to have been, as already pointed out (p. 375), 
a traditional survival. The principles of ancient art may have 
been less familiar through tradition to Niccola than to the Gothic 
carvers ; but these works at Pisa were wrought not so much 
under the guidance of tradition, as in conscious emulation, and 
with direct imitation of models which he had seen and admired. 
A passion for excellence of form, as displayed in these models, 
was apparently the ruling impulse with him. In the reliefs of 
the panels the characteristics of that Greco-Roman art which 
had stirred his ambition is no less strongly marked than in the 
figure just mentioned. In the grouping and execution of these 
reliefs the sculptor has given us little of his own. He has fol- 
lowed his models closely, even to the peculiar conventions of 
treatment in draperies and other details. The redundance and 
artificiality of Greco-Roman design are reproduced with curious 
exactness. It is not at all strange that the ancient models which 



412 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

he had at hand for study should have stimulated his genius. In 
comparison with the contemporary works of art in Italy, the 
carvings of the ancient sarcophagi in the Pisan Campo Santo, 
and other kindred works in Pisa, exhibit great superiority of form. 
But it seems remarkable that a temperament so quick to appre- 
ciate excellence of form should have shown so little feeling for 
that beauty of expression which is a distinctive quality of 
mediaeval art, first in France and afterwards in Italy. One 
looks in vain, in these reliefs by Niccola Pisano, for those refine- 
ments of expression and treatment which mark the works of his 
immediate successors. It is mainly in the rendering of animal 
life — in the carving of the beasts which support the pillars 
of the pulpit — that a living and original faculty is largely 
manifest. 

Few other early Italian sculptors were so strongly influenced 
by Roman art. The reliefs of Giovanni Pisano at Orvieto are 
very different from those of Niccola at Pisa. In expression and 
in types of form they are more like Gothic works. A strong 
influence of nature and a fine sense of beauty are apparent in 
them ; and they exhibit little evidence of direct reference to 
ancient models. The same may be said of the carvings in the 
panels of the Campanile in Florence, attributed to Giotto and 
Andrea Pisano. These reliefs differ a good deal in merit one 
from another ; but many of them are of great beauty. The 
influence of French art was by this time considerable, and these 
reliefs show it in a marked degree ; yet though a hundred years 
later in date than the reliefs of the portal of the Virgin of the 
Cathedral of Paris, they do not surpass, and few of them equal, 
the works of the French carver of that portal. 

Of foliate sculpture, Italy produced little that was original 
and peculiar during the thirteenth century. The Roman and 
Byzantine types of leafage survived except where, as in the 
capitals of the pulpit of the Baptistery of Pisa, French Gothic 
models were largely followed. In the fourteenth century, how- 
ever, distinctive Italian types of leafage were developed, which 
are often remarkable for delicacy and beauty, but which have 
as little Gothic character as the pointed buildings themselves 
with which they are associated. The leaf sculpture of the door 
jambs of the Cathedral of Florence affords specimens of the 
best work of this kind. The first noticeable and distinguishing 



xiv SCULPTURE IN ENGLAND AND OTHER COUNTRIES 413 

characteristic of it is that it is distinctly surface sculpture, a 
kind of rich chasing of the mouldings and narrow panels of the 
doorway. The manner in which the undulating surfaces of 
these mouldings are followed by the exquisitely outlined and 
delicately modelled leafage is remarkable. The bossy char- 
acter of Gothic ornamentation is wholly absent. The next 
peculiarity which we notice is that of extremely naturalistic 
elaboration. The fig, the oak, and the ivy are wrought in the 
fine marble with almost complete botanical perfection. The 
power of monumental abstraction, together with a fine sugges- 
tion of nature, was never reached by the Italian ornamentists. 
A proneness to close imitation, where nature itself supplies the 
motives for ornamental elements, is constant with them. And 
their natural propensity for such imitation is still more fully 
manifest in the time of the early Renaissance in such works as 
the ornamental borders of the Ghiberti gates in Florence. 

Perhaps the finest foliate sculpture that Italy ever produced 
is that of the older capitals of the Ducal Palace in Venice. This 
sculpture has a degree of architectural character which is rare 
outside of France ; and it is remarkable for beauty of line and 
surface, caught from nature itself, without any over-naturalism. 

There was no important native development of sculp- 
ture in Spain during the Middle Ages. The statues which 
adorn some of the Gothic edifices in that country are, like the 
architecture itself, of essentially French character, if not of 
French workmanship. But the employment of statues was 
not general, even in the greater Gothic buildings. The facade 
of the Cathedral of Burgos, for instance, has no figure sculpture 
whatever. The portals of the west facade of St. Vincent of 
Avilla are, however, enriched with statues, dating apparently 
from the latter part of the twelfth century, which are thoroughly 
architectural in expression. They compare favourably with the 
best sculptures of the same epoch in France, and show similar 
archaisms and the same meritorious qualities. Two statues on 
either side of the portal of St. Martin of Segovia have much 
the same character and are equally architectural in design and 
connection with the building ; but they are rather less fine in 
form. Of more advanced sculpture the portals or the transept 
of the Cathedral of Burgos furnish examples. These correspond 
to later Gothic work in France, but they are not so architectural, 



4H GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap, xiv 

and they are placed between the shafts of the jambs, rather than 
against them. The tympanum sculptures of this portal are in 
very high relief, and neither they nor the statues of the jambs 
show any conspicuously fine qualities. Statues of a good late 
Gothic type occur also in the portal of the Church of St. Este- 
ban of Burgos, and a rich assemblage of still more advanced 
and more elaborate figures occurs in the portals of the west 
front of Leon Cathedral. These are lacking in monumental 
severity, though as independent sculptures they have the qual- 
ities of corresponding works in France. The reliefs of the 
tympanums of Leon have much merit as architectural enrich- 
ments. 

Foliate sculpture in Spain is no more original or important 
than that of the figure. The capitals and string-courses of the 
Gothic buildings exhibit, for the most part, French motives with 
little modification. The conventional leafage of the cornice 
of the choir of Burgos, for instance, might have been taken 
directly from Paris or Amiens, as might also those of the capi- 
tals and bases which adorn the angles of the buttresses. 



CHAPTER XV 

GOTHIC PAINTING AND STAINED GLASS IN FRANCE 

Though colours were employed on many parts of the Gothic 
building, enlivening sculpture and relieving plain surfaces with 
various ornamental patterns, the art of figure painting found 
less scope in Gothic art than it had in connection with the 
architecture of those parts of Gaul which lay outside of the 
region of the Gothic movement. This, as before remarked 
(p. 22), was a natural consequence of the Gothic structural sys- 
tem, in which extensive wall surfaces, inviting the exercise of 
the painter's art, did not exist. 

Yet on such restricted wall spaces as there were figure 
painting was more or less practised in the Ile-de-France ; and 
some notice of this painting is therefore necessary to complete 
our study of the Gothic style. Unhappily, no examples of 
wall painting in Gothic buildings have survived in good condi- 
tion ; and such scanty and mutilated remains as do exist (in the 
transept of Noyon, and in the wall arcades of the Sainte Cha- 
pelle at Paris, for instance) are insufficient to afford a clear 
understanding of their original character. But illuminated 
manuscripts of the Gothic period are extant in abundance and 
in excellent preservation ; and from them, rather than from the 
almost obliterated examples of painting that are occasionally 
met with on the walls of churches, we may derive illustrations 
of Gothic art in this branch. 

Mediaeval painting, as exhibited in these manuscripts, shows 
a very primitive state of pictorial development. Only the most 
elementary qualities of outline and colour are displayed, and the 
art is strictly ornamental, rather than realistic, in motive and 
in treatment. The drawing exhibits a curious mingling of 
archaic simplicity with great elegance of line. In delineation 
of the human figure, and expression of graceful gesture and 
movement, the French illuminators developed by the beginning 

4' 5 



4i6 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 



of the thirteenth century a degree of skill that was not attained 
in Italy until the century following. Yet joined with this skill 
the conventions of immaturity are everywhere conspicuous. 
The colours are laid in almost flat fields, though modellings are 
suggested by pale markings to indicate saliences, and by dark 
hatchings to express depressions ; but there is never any indi- 
cation of the direction from which the light falls, and no cast 
shadows. The natural creamy-white colour of the vellum stands 
for flesh, but cheeks and lips are slightly reddened. Features 
are drawn in with fine lines of brown or black, and a distinct 




l ■:, .■'.,". .■...,;__' "'".:. V ; ! < ;i: l ,i.: . i,,'..^'.;;. |:ii„i;..,i:'.|i;iiiii:iii;i:i;;,i;;„!i,;:iiil;i| 

Fig. 241. 



outline of the same describes every contour and every detail. 
In the twelfth century the outline is usually brown, and both 
figures and backgrounds are light in tone ; while in the thir- 
teenth century the outlines become black, and figures and 
backgrounds are more intense in hue. Usually in the thirteenth 
century the backgrounds are quite flat, and are generally either 
of an ultramarine blue or of a brownish red colour. In some 
cases, as in a manuscript of the Life of St. Denis (Fig. 241), 
dating from the middle of this century, figures are represented 
with no ground under their feet. No correct expression of 
different planes of distance occurs, and no perspective is at- 



xv PAINTING AND STAINED GLASS IN FRANCE 417 

tempted. Where one figure has to be represented behind 
another, the farther one is but partially drawn, like the farther 
horse in this illustration, which is given without legs. The 
whole character of the work is thus essentially ornamental and 
conventional, rather than completely pictorial, yet it is often 
both tender in expression and beautiful in composition ; and it 
rarely fails, in its various quarterings, to exhibit a fine harmony 
of mostly pure colour combinations. 

This painting is, of course, based upon the traditional art 
that had, from the early Christian times, been cultivated in the 
monasteries of Europe. It has, however, a superior beauty which 
is altogether peculiar to Gothic art, though, unlike Gothic sculp- 
ture, it failed to develop beyond the most primitive technical 
conditions. 

It was not in the field of painting proper, but in that of 
stained glass, that chromatic design, in Gothic architecture, 
where the great openings afforded ample space that was denied 
to wall-painting, reached its most splendid development. Though 
simpler forms of this art had been practised earlier, the fullest 
magnificence of stained glass is peculiar to the Gothic of the 
twelfth and thirteenth centuries. 

The natural limitations of this mode of colour design are such 
as to confine the artist to the most abstract and conventional 
treatment. His material resources are those only which are 
afforded by sheets of glass coloured, in a molten state, by me- 
tallic oxides, cut up into bits and joined together by bars of 
lead and iron, and drawn upon with a pencil charged with a 
neutral pigment which is burnt in. It is plain that only a most 
conventional kind of art could be produced by such means. Yet 
by them the mediaeval artist achieved results of consummate 
ornamental beauty. • 

The task of the designer in stained glass was, on the one 
hand, to subdue the light and give a comfortable sense of en- 
closure, and on the other to produce brilliant harmonies of 
translucent colours, and to add such pictorial interest as the 
conditions controlling his art would permit. The fundamental 
difference between this art and the art of painting on an opaque 
substance is, of course, that in the one case light passes through 
the design everywhere, while in the other it falls upon its sur- 
face only. This difference separates the two by an impassable 

2E 



4 i8 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

gulf. With the translucence of glass, and the structural lead 
lines, those effects of solid form and planes of distance, which 
are dependent upon a greater or less development of light and 
shade, are impossible. The Gothic workman appreciated this, 
and not only did not attempt to produce such effects, but evi- 
dently took pleasure in keeping well within the limitations of 
his materials and conditions. The true artist does this, of 
course, in every branch of art ; but in no other branch are the 
proper limitations so narrow, and at no other time do we find 
the artist in stained glass so obedient to them. If he would 
preserve the translucent beauty of the glass, the colours which 
make up the design must be employed in a strictly heraldic 
manner. Hardly may the least gradation indicative of solid 
form occur, and the conventions of line are equally peculiar 
and imperative. For these lines are not outlines merely ; they 
are the framework in which the bits of glass are set and held 
together. They are, therefore, necessarily coarse beyond any 
lines used in even the most conventional wall painting. Within 
the great lead lines the artist does, it is true, give with the 
pencil more or less delineation of the coarser details of his fig- 
ures. By applying his neutral pigment either heavily or lightly, 
and by scratching out lights with the point of a sharpened 
stick, he can produce some rude suggestions of gradation and 
modelling ; but this is usually not carried to the extent of de- 
stroying the general translucence of even the smallest bit of 
glass. In the general effect, at a distance from which the de- 
sign can be seen as a whole, these details count for little : the 
chief impression received is one of jewel-like effulgence of 
colour. The conventions of the art ought not to be regarded as 
imperfections, for on them are the qualities dependent. And 
even the archaisms of figure drawing, which are not wholly the 
result of the material conditions, but are largely due to unde- 
veloped graphic skill, accord so well with the unavoidable con- 
ventions that we can hardly conceive of their being changed 
with good effect. 

The art of designing in stained glass would seem to be 
incapable of real development beyond the conditions that were 
reached in the Middle Ages. Modern attempts to give it a 
more complete pictorial character indicate an imperfect recogni- 
tion of its inherent principles, and an imperfect appreciation 



PAINTING AND STAINED GLASS IN FRANCE 



419 



of the beauty of the mediaeval art. The modern devices of 
fusing and overlaying have led the designer in stained glass out 
of the true path ; and since the thirteenth century all manner of 
attempts have been made to give the art a character that does 
not properly belong to it. 

Of the vast numbers of mag- 
nificent colour designs which 
filled the great openings of the 
Gothic churches of the twelfth 
and thirteenth centuries, very 
few are extant ; but yet enough is 
preserved to show us fully what 
the art was. From the middle 
of the twelfth century we have 
some fragments in the apsidal 
chapels of the Church of St. 
Denis, while the Cathedral of 
Chartres retains, in almost per- 
fect condition, many noble speci- 
mens dating from the latter part 
of the same century. Among 
these last is the well-known 
Jesse window, which may be 
taken as an example of the best 
work of the time, or of any time. 
Figure 242, a figure from this 
window, affords an illustration of 
its character, so far as the delin- 
eation of form is concerned. The 
design is produced, for the most 
part, out of pure pot-metal, while 
white glass is introduced here 
and there to heighten the ef- 
fect in draperies and ornaments. 
Each piece of glass is of one 
colour, so that where colour changes new pieces have to be 
inserted ; and each separate piece is encompassed by its sus- 
taining framework of lead. On various parts of the design 
thus made up, as in a mosaic, of many small fragments, the 
necessary details are, as before remarked, drawn with a pencil 




Fig. 242. 



4 2o GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap, xv 

charged with neutral pigment. The figures in this period are 
small, rarely more than two or three feet high, and often very- 
much smaller, the separate pieces of glass hardly ever exceed- 
ing six inches in greatest dimension. 

The Cathedral of Chartres is unique among extant Gothic 
buildings in its wealth of mediaeval glass, nearly all of the 
original work of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries remaining 
in place and in good condition. Though a fragile form of art, 
stained glass is, if undisturbed by accident or violence, one of 
the most permanent. But unhappily, by both accident and 
violence, the greater number of extant Gothic monuments have 
been more or less completely despoiled of their ancient glass ; 
and their interiors, in consequence, present to-day a very differ- 
ent aspect from that which they originally had. 

Of the glass of the thirteenth century some fine specimens 
still exist in Paris, Reims, Bourges, and elsewhere. The Cathe- 
dral of Paris retains the splendid glass of its three great roses 
— those of the transept and that of the west end — practically 
intact ; while the glass of the Sainte Chapelle, though much 
mended, still fills every opening. The heraldic treatment re- 
mains as absolute as in the earlier work ; but it is noticeable 
that the fields of colour are never absolutely flat. Nearly every- 
where there is some gradation, and in some cases there is con- 
siderable. This, however, is not gradation indicative of solid 
form ; it has nothing whatever to do with the form. It is due 
to inequality of thickness and accidental unevenness of colour in 
the pot-metal. This unevenness of colour, which is a natural 
quality of the old glass, adds a charm which no glass wrought 
with mechanical perfection can have. 



CHAPTER XVI 

PAINTING AND STAINED GLASS IN ENGLAND AND OTHER COUNTRIES 

Although during the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries 
the art of painting on the walls of churches, and of otherwise 
colouring architecture, was extensively practised in all of the 
countries of Europe, yet there was nothing in other countries 
of essentially different character from that which was produced 
in France. The tenderness of sentiment and the elegance of 
design which give charm to the works of French genius were 
not, indeed, equalled in those of other countries ; but in general 
principles the art was the same all over Europe until the close 
of the thirteenth century, when, in Italy, the great movement set 
in which ultimately led, in that country, to the highest develop- 
ment of painting. The earliest pictorial art of Italy was poste- 
rior to the epoch of strictly Gothic building in the North. But 
as it was associated with the Italian pointed architecture its 
early phases properly form a part of our subject. 

Italian painting exhibits from the first 1 technical qualities 
which are hardly met with in the same degree of advancement 
in the Gothic of the North. Though the outline remains dis- 
tinct, it is less prominent than in France, and the elements of 
chiaroscuro and perspective, though but slightly and imper- 
fectly suggested, are nevertheless present. A more advanced 
pictorial conception and treatment are everywhere manifest. 
The character of illumination is still strongly marked, but the 
elements of distinctively pictorial art are equally so. The art 
of Cimabue, at the close of the thirteenth century, shows an 
improvement upon the severe conventions of French Gothic 
painting in the fuller gradations and delicate modellings which 
give a faint touch of reality to flesh and draperies ; while in the 
works of Giotto, in the early part of the century following, we 

1 From the first of the distinctively Italian art, the Greco-Roman ami Italo- 
Byzantine arts which were practised in Italy during the early Middle Ages are not 
here referred to. 

4 2I 



422 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

get, together with the higher qualities of the creative imagination, 
a technical advance which materially changed the character of 
the art, and gave it a start in the direction of pictorial realism. 

The earliest examples of Italian mediaeval wall painting, and 
almost the only ones which have any real connection with our 
subject, are those of the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, of Sta. 
Croce of Florence, and of a few other contemporaneous monu- 
ments. Though of the Italian pointed style, the architecture of 
these buildings is, as we have seen, essentially different from 
the Gothic. In place of great openings and slender supports 
we have here large flat wall areas and small openings. The 
interiors of such buildings would be bald in the extreme with- 
out colour illumination. These wall expanses, and the absence 
of great fields of brilliantly coloured glass in trying competi- 
tion with the quiet tones of fresco, gave the most favourable 
conditions for the exercise of the mural painter's art. But, un- 
like the modern painter on small movable canvases, the mediaeval 
Italian, called to paint upon the walls of churches, had con- 
stantly forced upon his mind the monumental purpose of his art 
— an habitual sense of which naturally develops the grandest 
qualities of painting. This led him to regard his wall space 
primarily as a field to be embellished with colour ; and although 
he had both a pictorial and a didactic purpose as well, he rightly 
felt that everything else must be based upon a pleasing orna- 
mental scheme. His panel had to be divided into spaces of 
colours so related to each other as to produce a harmony of total 
effect. Upon this basis a Scriptural story, or a religious legend, 
had, at the same time, to be set forth with as much truth to 
nature as the primitive artist could command. But with all his 
effort to be natural he worked as an artist, instinctively feeling 
that the primary function of a work of art is to set forth beauty; 
and the beauty which he sought to display was embodied in the 
mediaeval Christian ideals. He strove to give an appearance 
of reality to these ideals, not merely to reproduce nature. Since, 
however, an appearance of reality could be secured through a re- 
semblance to nature only, such resemblance he faithfully sought 
to attain as far as the monumental conditions under which he 
worked would permit. His naturalism was necessarily of a 
limited and conventional kind, both on account of these con- 
ditions and because of his own executive incapacity. But it 



xvi PAINTING AND STAINED GLASS IN ENGLAND 423 

was sufficient to give his work a very different character from 
the purely symbolic art of still earlier times. Modelling and 
perspective were both rendered as far as the artist's knowledge 
and skill would allow. This did no harm to his art, considered 
as pure decoration ; for there is, in fact, no such complete in- 
compatibility of naturalistic with monumental painting as is 
sometimes supposed. 1 So long as the artist preserves a general 
ornamental scheme, he may, in painting, go very far in the de- 
velopment of pictorial realism without harm to monumental 
effectiveness. The frescos of Giotto and his followers exhibit, 
however, no realism in the modern sense ; they are based on 
principles of abstraction which were imposed by the material 
conditions and executive limitations, as well as by the aims and 
ideals, of the time. 

But this early Italian painting, though an appropriate em- 
bellishment of the walls of pointed buildings in Italy, and hav- 
ing a good deal in common with the spirit of Gothic, was but 
the beginning of a great school of art which had no relation to 
Gothic, and the discussion of which would therefore be foreign 
to our present subject. 

In stained glass there were no peculiar styles either in Eng- 
land, Germany, Italy, or Spain. The use which in Romanesque 
times had everywhere been made of this mode of filling aper- 
tures continued in each of these countries during the Gothic 
period. In many cases fine examples of Gothic glass design 
were executed, especially in England and Germany. But the 
art was mainly dependent on France. 

1 1 think that M. Viollet-le-Duc, in his article Peinture, errs in maintaining that 
the principles of pictorial art are necessarily and completely opposed to the principles 
of ornamental art. He refers to the works of the ancient Egyptians and Persians as 
illustrating the true principles of ornamental art, and to the works of Titian and 
Rembrandt as illustrating those of pictorial art, and argues that the qualities of the 
one are incompatible with those of the other. This is an extreme comparison, but 
the principle for which he contends is, nevertheless, not supported by it. The author 
fails to see that even the art of Titian is based upon a general ornamental scheme of 
lines, masses, and colours, no less strictly than the most abstract art of the Egyptians 
and Persians, from which it is, in fact, through a long series of intermediate develop- 
ments, derived ; and that so long as this ornamental scheme governs the composition, 
a work of art may be very far advanced in pictorial character without losing in orna- 
mental and monumental effectiveness and propriety. 

'The art of Rembrandt is different. He, though a great master of expression, was 
one of the founders of that modern picturesque realism which is largely independent 
of ornamental qualities. 



CHAPTER XVII 

CONCLUDING SUMMARY 

The foregoing examination and comparison of the pointed 
architectures of the different countries of Europe will be seen, 
I think, to afford a serviceable, though it be not an exhaustive, 
illustration of the peculiar nature of Gothic architecture, and to 
throw light upon its origin. The true nature of this architec- 
ture has not, hitherto, been generally understood, because its 
distinctive characteristics have not been clearly recognized ; 
and it has not been seen that its essential features were not 
independent or arbitrary inventions, but were based on princi- 
ples gradually deduced from practice, and determined by the 
laws of mechanics governing the structure, as well as by a 
finely creative artistic sense. Our examination of these princi- 
ples, as embodied in surviving monuments, reveals the existence 
of a great class of buildings which display a perfectly distinc- 
tive character, and which are confined, for the most part, to one 
closely circumscribed region. In this region a logical growth, 
from the earliest germs, of the principles of Gothic art may 
still be traced. Elsewhere we find buildings, in all cases later 
in date of erection, which exhibit many apparently kindred fea- 
tures, but which, in hardly a single instance, completely display 
in their structure the same distinctive system, and in many cases 
do not display it at all. In France, and in France alone, is the 
system complete and the development apparent. There only 
are the successive steps of change spontaneous and connected, 
and there alone does the inventive spirit of the builders mani- 
fest itself as animated by a general movement. 

And what the monuments themselves show, is borne out 
by what might be fairly inferred from our knowledge of the 
respective conditions of the different countries in the twelfth 
and thirteenth centuries. In France, as I have before re- 
marked, the ethnological constitution of the people was such 
as to render them the most artistic race of Northern Europe, 

424 



chap, xvii CONCLUDING SUMMARY 425 

while their social and political conditions were most favourable 
to artistic production of a monumental kind. The force of 
natural aptitude, the spirit of communal independence, of 
national unity, and of religious zeal, were all highly conducive 
to the fruitful exercise of the native artistic powers. The gen- 
eral superiority of the French, at this time, in institutions and 
in letters, has long been recognized. It is but natural that they 
should have been superior also in the fine arts. 

In England, at this epoch, the conditions were very different. 
Prior to the Norman Conquest no architecture of importance 
had been developed in the island, though the rudiments of a 
style existed which might, perhaps, in time, have grown into 
importance. By the Conquest the progress of this art was nat- 
urally checked ; and all native activity in building was for a 
long time held in abeyance by the fact that the conquerors 
placed a prelate or an abbot of their own race at the head of 
nearly every diocese and monastery. No admixture of foreign 
blood had given to the English people what their Teutonic nature 
lacked in the direction of artistic aptitudes. The Norman infu- 
sion at length did much ; but the Norman race was itself too 
near of kin to introduce such new elements as would have been 
required for a fresh and original development of art. 

After the oppression of the conquerors had in a measure 
ceased, and the fusion of the two races had so far progressed 
as to remove the old distinctions between Normans and English- 
men, and produce somewhat of common national feeling, the 
conditions for the growth of a national art were still far less 
auspicious than they were in France. No free communities 
like those of the Continent existed. The town had not, in 
England, the character and meaning that the Commune had in 
France. It was not, as in France, a great centre of indepen- 
dent life where the arts might naturally call out the enthusiastic 
activity of large bodies of men working in the municipal employ. 
Ecclesiastical corporations and private individuals alone, under 
the Crown, held in England the powers which in France were pos- 
sessed by the Communes. 1 The cathedrals here did not gener- 
ally spring up as central objects in active towns ; they were 
placed often in remote places, and in connection with monastic 
houses. Salisbury, Wells, Peterborough, Worcester, Canter- 

1 Cf. Freeman's Norman Conquest, vol. v. chap. xxv. 



426 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap. 

bury, and many others remain to this day surrounded by little 
more than country villages ; while even York and Lincoln 
cathedrals had a closer connection with the Bishops' sees than 
with the towns in which they are situated. The spirit of popu- 
lar enthusiasm, of which the Abbot Haymon writes, 1 had no 
counterpart in England. Church building was here much more 
exclusively in charge of the clergy, regular and secular. 2 It is, 
in fact, one of the essential points of difference between the 
pointed architecture of England and the Gothic of France in 
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that the former was largely 
an ecclesiastical, rather than a popular, development. 

The native English activity in building, which was checked 
by the Conquest, did not remain wholly or permanently inactive. 
It was, however, natural that it should be strongly influenced 
by that of the foreign settlers, which was the result of a superior 
discipline and culture ; but it had character and independence 
enough to react in turn. Hence the later Norman art of Eng- 
land assumed, at length, a character of its own. But the Eng- 
lish influence affected only the ornamental features and details 
of the architecture ; the art remained, in its structural principles 
and forms, essentially Norman. Even the advanced pointed 
monuments — the Cathedral of Salisbury, the nave and transept 
of Wells, and the Presbytery of Lincoln, among others — are, 
as we have seen, substantially Norman buildings. They differ 
from those of the earlier Norman style in little more than the 
substitution of pointed arches for round arches, and in the modi- 
fication of mouldings and ornaments. This architecture can- 
not, therefore, be properly called English in the sense of being 
a purely native product : it is Anglo-Norman. And this is, of 
course, largely French, since the dominant artistic influence, 
under which both Normans and English worked at this time, 
was that of France. 

1 The well-known letter of the Abbot Haymon, of St. Pierre-sur-Dive, written in 
1 1 54, gives an impressive account of the religious ardour which actuated all classes of 
the people, and the material assistance which they voluntarily rendered towards the 
construction of the church edifice. 

2 Among the monks and the clergy there was, indeed, no lack of zeal in architec- 
tural construction. Bishop Hugh, of Lincoln, is said to have assisted with his own 
hands in the erection of his splendid choir, and records are numerous of other 
similar instances. But no general popular activity in connection with the building 
of churches, like that which prevailed in France, appears to have been called out. 



xvn CONCLUDING SUMMARY 427 

" Macaulay," says Freeman, 1 "has truly remarked that the 
history of England for a considerable period after the Conquest 
is not English history at all, but French. It was not till the 
reign of Edward I, at the earliest, that our kings and nobles 
could be regarded as really our fellow-countrymen." And 
likewise it may be said that the architecture of England at 
the same epoch was not English architecture at all, but 
French. Of the two elements, English and Norman, which 
mainly constitute the English race, the English has, in the 
long run, proved the stronger; and it has, since the thirteenth 
century, held the ascendant in arts no less than in the institu- 
tions. The character, however, that architecture has assumed, 
since this ascendency became active, is by no means so 
admirable as that which it had before. The perpendicular 
style, which alone since the Conquest is entitled to be called 
an English art, 2 is certainly neither Gothic nor at all compara- 
ble in merits to the architecture which it superseded. 3 

In Germany the conditions in the twelfth century were not 
more favourable to the formation of a style like the Gothic. 
The grand Romanesque architecture of the country was, in the 
main, a native style, and was well suited to the local condi- 
tions. The Germans showed little disposition to change radi- 
cally this style, and they had little need to do so. The inventive 
genius of the people was less quick than that of the French ; 
and no event, like the Norman Conquest of England, occurred 
to infuse foreign ideas and stimulate to new architectural de- 
partures. Under these circumstances the principles of building 
remained long unchanged ; and when finally the Gothic of 
France began to exert an influence, it was rather through imi- 
tation, than through a new spirit of invention, that it was 
manifest. 

Whatever may be thought of the pointed architecture of 
Italy, few persons have supposed that there was ever any origi- 
nal development of the Gothic style in that country. The large 
infusions of foreign blood, through the various incursions of the 



1 Life, vol. i. p. 126. 

2 " Every church I see convinces me more and more that this (the perpendicular) 
is our peculiarly English style." Freeman, Life, vol. i. p. 86. 

8 Even Rickman, An Attempt to discriminate the Styles of Architecture in Eng- 
land, p. 5, recognizes the decadent character of the perpendicular style. 



428 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE chap, xvii 

Northern races, had been absorbed into purely Italian veins. 
Italian tastes, traditions, and needs were all favourable to the 
ancient forms of building, which were their own natural inheri- 
tance ; and in the revival of the arts, after the stagnant period 
which followed the downfall of the ancient civilization, it was 
only natural that the Italians should show a predominant pref- 
erence for them. The Italians of the Middle Ages were never 
constructive builders. The Romanesque of Italy (excepting 
always the semi-Teutonic Lombard-Romanesque) was not an 
organic and structurally progressive style. The Cathedral of 
Pisa, for instance, though subtle in its proportions, and beauti- 
ful in its details, is in construction, for the most part, like a 
Christian Roman basilica of the earliest times. Its superim- 
posed arcades are without organic connection; and there is 
nothing in the system that could give rise to new structural 
developments. A comparison of Pisa with the nearly contem- 
poraneous Abbaye-aux-Dames of Caen will show how widely 
the Italian Romanesque differs from that rudimentary organic 
system which contained the germs of the Gothic style. 

There can certainly be no question with regard to an 
original development of Gothic art in Spain. The Christian civili- 
zation of the country was, from the time of the Moorish invasion, 
far too unsettled to admit of such a development, even 
had the artistic constitution of the race been favourable. Of 
all the nations of the West the Spanish, in the Middle Ages, 
were the least advanced in those conditions of political and 
social organization, and of intellectual and moral life, which 
favour the development of the fine arts. 

It does not then from historical considerations, any more 
than from those which the buildings of the different countries 
themselves suggest, appear that Gothic architecture arose either 
in England, Germany, Italy, or Spain ; but everything points 
clearly to France as the locality of its origin, and the only 
locality of its full and distinctive development. 

And of the pure French Gothic of the twelfth century it is 
hardly too much to say that it is the most splendid architectural 
product that human genius and skill have thus far wrought in 
this world. 



INDEX 



ABACUS, its adjustment to the load imposed 
upon it, 124-129 (cuts) ; its thickness 
proportioned to the expansion of the 
bell, 313 (cuts) ; square in plan until 
the second quarter of 13th cent., 314, 
316 ; becomes polygonal as the archivolt 
mouldings become polygonal in sec- 
tion , 314, 316, 317 ; round rarely occurs, 
314; early forms of profiles, 315; the 
profiles vary in the same arcade, 315 ; 
profile of upper member becomes 
curved, 316 (cut) ; adjusted to the 
character of the ribs, 334. 
Of the cath. of Amiens, 140, of the western- 
most bay, 141 (cuts), nave, 314, west 
front and triforium, 316 (cuts) ; cath. of 
Beauvais, 143 ; cath. of Chartres, nave, 
137; ch. of St. Evremond of Creil, 315 
(cut) ; cath. of Laon, triforium, 128 
(cut), 313 (cut) ; ch. of Morienval, 51 
(cut), 315; cath. of Paris, choir, 124, 
(cut), triforium of choir, 313, nave, 
124-128 (cuts), 313, 314, triforium of 
nave, 312, seventh or westernmost 
pier, 126-128 (cuts) ; abbey ch. of 
St.-Germer-de-Fly, apse, 75 (cut) ; 
abbey ch. of St. Leu d'Esserent, nave, 
134; cath. of Seniis, 315 (cut), choir 
and nave, 313; cath. of Soissons, 128 
(cut). 
English, generally round, 338 ; square 
in the local style of Wells and Glaston- 
bury, 343; all its mouldings generally 
rounded in profile, 344 (cut) ; of 
Glastonbury cath., 344 (cut) ; Lincoln 
cath., west transept and choir screen, 
344 (cuts) ; Wells cath., 344 (cut). 
German, 355. 
Italian, 357. 
Spanish, 359. 
See also Capitals. 

Adamy, Architektonik des Mittelalters, 245 1. 

Aisles, apsidal. See Apsidal aisles. 

Aix-la-Chapelle, church of, most important 
survival of Carlovingian epoch, 34; 
system of vaulting, 34 (cut). 

Amiens, cathedral of, its nave the crowning 
glory of Gothic art, 138 (plate), 142, 
190 ; date of construction, 138 ; abacus, 
140, of the westernmost bay, 141 (cuts), 



nave, 314, west front and triforium, 
316 (cuts) ; apse, 165 (cut) ; apsidal 
chapels, 170; bases, 322, 323 (cut); 
buttresses, 150 (cut), 215, 251 ; capitals, 
140, 141 (cuts), 317 (cut), 396; uniting 
of clerestory and triforium in nave, 
160 ; corbels, sculpture of, 369 1 ; cornice, 
sculpture of, 393 ; facade, 179 (plate) ; 
hood mouldings, 336; mullions and 
tracery, 336; nave, exterior of, 189, 
length of, 234, height of, 235 ; parapet, 
188; piers and vaulting shafts of the 
nave, 140 (cut), 200; rib profiles, 333, 
334. 35 x I sculpture of west facade, 24, 
377. 378, of triforium string-course and 
exterior cornice, 393 (cut), of choir 
capital, 396; string-course, 326, of the 
triforium, 393 (cut) ; transept, 172; 
triforium of the nave, 160, of the choir, 
253 ; vaults and ribs of the nave, 140, 
of the apse, 165 (cut) ; Virgin of south 
door of west facade, 378. 

Angel choir of Lincoln cathedral, 208, 222- 
224, 426. 

Angle spur in Gothic bases, 321. 

Apertures. See Openings. 

Apses, comparative study of, in French 
Gothic buildings, 161-170 ; semi- 
circular form characteristic of French 
churches, 161 ; first great Gothic apse, 
74 (plate) ; of the cath. of Amiens, 

165 (cut) ; cath. of Auxerre, 163 ; 
of cath. of Beauvais, 143, 253 ; ch. of 
Berzy-le-Sec, 68, 70, 161 ; cath. of 
Bourges, 163 ; ch. of St. Yved, Braisne, 
245; cath. of Chartres, 164 (cut) ; cath. 
of Noyon, 88, 89, 162 (cut), 164, 166; 
cath. of Paris, 163 (cut), 164; cath. of 
Reims, 170; ch. of St. Remi of Reims, 

166 (cuts) ; cath. of Rouen, 163 ; ch. 
of St.-Germer-de-Fly, 74 (plate), 161 
(cut) ; ch. of St. Leu d'Esserent, 163, 
170 (cut); cath. of Seniis, 94, 166; 
cath. of Sens, 163 ; rare in England, 226. 

German, 256 ; ch. of Heisterbach, 247,353, 
354; cath. of Limbing, 243; cath. of 
Magdeburg, 240, 241 ; ch. of St. Eliza- 
beth of Marburg, 249; the Liebfrauen- 
kirche of Trier, 248, 266. 

Italian, 280; cath. of Arezzo, 270; ch. of 



429 



43° 



INDEX 



St. Francis of Assisi, 265, 266, 272; ch. 
of St. Francis of Bologna, 267, 280; 
cath. of Florence, 280; ch. of Sta. 
Croce at Florence, 271, 272. 
Spanish, 301 ; cath. of Leon, 297. 
See also Fast end. 

Apsidal aisles, earliest extant instance of, 
35; difficulties in vaulting, 62, 71, 84, 
167-170; of cath. of Le Mans, 170; 
abbey ch. of Morienval, 59-62 (cut) ; 
cath. of Ni>yon, 94 (cul) ; cath. of 
Paris, 168 (cut) ; ch. of St. Denis, 82 
(cut), 84 (cut), 168 ; ch. of St. Louis of 
Poissy, 84, 85; ch. of St. Maclou of 
Pontoise, 81 (cut) ; ch. of St.-Germer- 
de-Fly, 70-73 (cuts) ; ch. of St. Leu 
d'Esserent, 170 (cut); cath. of Senlis, 
94, 332 ; cath. of Sens, 86, 87 (cuts) ; rare 
in Italian pointed architecture, 280; of 
ch. of St. Stephano of Verona, 35. 

Apsidal chapels, in French Gothic build- 
ings, 170; of cath. of Amiens, 170; 
cath. ot Beauvais, 170; cath. of Noyon, 
94 (cut), 170; ch. of St. Maclou of 
Pontoise, 81 (cut ) ; cath. of Reims, 170 ; 
ch. of St. Denis, 82 (cut), 159; ch. of 
St-Germer-de-Fly, 73 (cut); ch. of 
St. Leu d'Fsserent, 170 (cut) ; Lincoln 
cath., 201 (cut) ; cath. of Senlis, 94, 159, 
170, 332; cath. of Soissons, 170. 

Arcades, 36; in the Gothic facade, 173. 

Arch, structural principle of, 6, 10; mono- 
lithic, 6; offset, 6. 
Pointed, properties of, 15 ; obviates diffi- 
culties in vault construction, 15, 17 
(cut) ; use without structural signifi- 
cance in ch. of St. Front in Perigueux, 
42; structural exigencies alone led to 
the use of, 60, 62; early use of, in 
abbey ch. of Morienval, 59 ; first con- 
sistent use of, in three stories of a 
structure, 89; an important character- 
istic of Gothic architecture, 136; em- 
ployed for the most part without 
structural significance in English point- 
ed architecture, 211, 212; lack of 
structural meaning in Italian use of, 

273- 
Arch mouldings, Gothic, 331 ; broad and 
effective, 352; the change from square 
to polygonal section affects the char- 
acter of the capital, 316,317; of cath. 
of Paris, ch. of St. Germain-des-Pres, 
ch. of St. Louis of Poissy, cath. of St. 
Denis, 331 (cuts); ch. of St.-Germer- 
de-Fly, ch. of St. Hildevei t of Gournay, 
ch. of Taverny, cath. of Laon, 332 
(cuts). 
English, 348-352; multiplicity of mem- 
bers in Anglo-Norman work, 348 ; 
depressions in, 349 ; almost always 



over-elaborated, 350; hard and linear 
effect, 350; resemblance between those 
of Lincoln cath. and Malmesbury 
abbey, 349 1; of Ely cath., Norwich 
cath., Peterborough cath., Romsey, St. 
Albans, Southwell, 348 (cuts) ; Malmes- 
bury abbey (cut), St. Mary's ch., New 
Shoreham, Salisbury cath., 349; Lin- 
coln cath., 349 (cut), 350. 
German, 355; of Cologne cath., 355 (cut). 
Italian, 358. 
Spanish, 359. 

Arches, pier. See Pier arches. 

Architectural style, secondary differences 
of, 7. 

Architecture, its principles primarily con- 
structive, 6; forms apart from function 
not significant, 6; religious architec- 
ture has always preceded secular, 28, 
88 ; secular builders begin to take a 
leading part in, 87, 88; general condi- 
tions under which the art was practised 
in the Middle Ages, 398. 

Architecture, transitional, defined, 56. 

Archivolts, unusual adjustment of doubled 
orders in choir triforium of cath. of 
Senlis, 94. 

Arezzo, cathedral of, date, 270; apse has 
somewhat of Gothic character, 270; 
openings, 270, 278; church of Sta. 
Maria della Pieve, piers, 277. 

Aries, church of St. Trophime, sculpture of 
the cloister, 366 (cut), 368. 

Arnolfo, said to have designed ch. of Sta. 
Croce at Florence, 271; architect of 
cath. of Florence, 274, 275 K 

Art schools of the Middle Ages, 398. 

Assisi, church of St. Francis, source of its 
architectural style, 265 ; has little Gothic 
character, 265, 283 ; compared with 
cath. of Arezzo, 270; apse, 265, 266, 
272 ; bases, 357 ; buttresses, 266 ; 
facade, 278 ; string-course, 359 ; vaults 
of the apse, 265, 272, of the nave, 266; 
wall paintings, 422. 

Athens, wall openings in a small church in, 
155 (cut). 

Autun, cathedral of, 43 ; sculpture of portal, 
364, of a capital of the nave, 385 (cut). 

Auvers, church of, buttresses, 148 ; facade, 

173- 

Auxerre, cathedral of, apse, 163. 

Avila, church of San Pedro, facade, 298. 
Church of San Vincent, capitals, 289; 
facade, 299; sculpture of portals, 413; 
towers, 299, 302 ; transepts, 301 ; vault- 
ing system, 289. 

Bamberg, cathedral, of date, 238 ; nave, 238 
-240 (cut) ; its plan retains many 
Rhenish-Romanesque features, 240 ; 



INDEX 



431 



clerestory, 240; piers and vaulting 
shafts, 239, 240; ribs, 238; vaults, 238, 
239- 
Bases, Gothic profiles of, 317-324 ; a modi- 
fication of the Attic base, 317; how 
adapted to Gothic construction, 318; 
composed of at least two members, 319 ; 
first innovation on the classic form 
of bases made by the Byzantine archi- 
tects, 319; proportioned to the size 
of the shaft, 321 ; their griffe or angle 
spur, 321 ; the plinth diminished in 
size, 322. 

Of cath. of Amiens, nave, 322 (cut), 323; 
cath. of Chartres, choir, 322 (cut) ; cath. 
of Paris, choir, 320 (cut), triforium of 
nave, 321 (cut), westernmost piers, 322 
(cut), 324; cath. of Reims, 321 (cut); 
ch. of St. Sophia of Constantinople, 
33. 3 Z 9 ( cut ) '■ cath. of Soissons, 322 
(cut). 

English, 344-347 ; of more members than 
the French, 345 ; plinth generally 
round, 345 ; absence of the griffe, 
345 ; of Canterbury cath., choir, 206 
(cut), 346; Ely cath., choir, 345 (cut) ; 
Hexham, choir, 345 ; Lincoln cath., 
207 (cut), 345 (cut); the Temple ch., 
London, 345 ; Wells cath., 346 (cut) ; 
Whitby choir, 345 (cut). 

German, modelled from early French 
Gothic, 355 ; often poor in later struc- 
tures, 355 ; of Bonn, 355 ; of Marburg, 
355- 

Italian, 357 ; of ch. of St. Francis of 
Assisi, cath. of Florence, chs. of Sta. 
Croce and Sta. Maria Novella of 
Florence, 357. 

Spanish, 359; of cath. of Salamanca, 359. 
Baudot, Eglises de Bourgs et Villages, 249 1 . 
Beauvais, cathedral of, exaggerated pro- 
portions, 142, 252 ; abacus, 143 ; apsidal 
chapels, 170; parapet, 188; piers of 
the choir, 142, 143 (cut), of the apse, 
143 ; ribs and vaults of the aisle, 144 
(cut) ; rib profiles of the choir, 334; 
triforium of the choir and apse, 253. 

Church of St. Etienne, first in Northern 
Europe to carry out the Lombard idea 
in vaulting, 52; example of fullest 
development of Romanesque archi- 
tecture, 57 ; nave, 52, 104-106, eastern- 
most bay of, 106; bases, 319 (cut); 
capitals, 113 3 ; rib profiles, 330, 332; 
ribs, 52, 53, 104; string-courses, 328; 
triforium arcade, 105, 106; vaults of 
the nave, 52, 104 (cut) ; aisles, 52, 53 
(cut). 
Bern ay, church of, 45. 

Berzy-le-Sec, church of, vaults and ribs of the 
apse, 68, 70, 161 ; rib profiles, 333. 



Bethesy St. Pierre, church of, vaulting of 
the aisle, 55 (cut), 63. 

Beverley minster, general system lacks 
Gothic character, 222; capitals, 344; 
absence of sculpture, 408 ; west transept 
facade, 228 ; wheel window, 228. 

Bocherville, church of St. George, choir, 
46. 

Bologna, church of St. Francis, date, 266, 
its plan essentially Gothic, 267; apse, 
267; apsidal aisie, 280; buttresses, 
267; facade, 278; piers, 266, 271; tran- 
sept ends, 280; vaulting shafts, 266; 
vaults and ribs, 267. 
Church of San Petronio, structural sys- 
tem, 276; buttresses, 276; openings, 278. 

Bonn, cathedral of, bases, 355; capitals, 
353- 

Bourges, cathedral of, date, 118 ; apse, 163; 
facade, 179; piers and vaulting shafts, 
118, 265 ; sculpture of portal, 370 1 ; has 
no transept, 171 ; triforium compared 
with that of cath. of Burgos, 294. 

Braisne, abbey church of St. Yved, 120, 
245 ; apse, 245 ; piers, 120, 121, 247 
(cut) ; vaults, 246. 

Breslau, Kreuzkirche, nave and aisles of 
equal height, 249. 

Bridlington abbey, equilateral arches, 217. 

Britton, Architectural Antiquities of Great 
Britain and Cathedral Antiquities of 
Great Britain, 3. 

Burgos, cathedral of, date, 293; modelled 
after the French Gothic, 293 ; buttresses, 
294 (cut) ; capitals, 359, 414 ; clerestory 
openings, 294, 298 ; facade resembles 
the best French models of the period, 
300; piers, 293, 294, 296; ribs and 
vaulting shafts, 293; sculpture, transept 
portal, 413 ; choir, 414 ; spire, 302 ; 
towers, 299, 302; triforium, 294; tran- 
sept ends, 301. 
Church of Las Huelgas, vaulting system, 

291. 
Church of St. Esteban, sculpture of 
portal, 414. 

Burgunriirin sculpture. See Sculpture, Bur- 
gundian. 

Burgundy, pointed architecture of, 260 ; the 
12th cent, buildings not strictly Gothic, 
260; early examples differ little from 
Romanesque, 260; one type character- 
ized by sexpartite vaulting, 261; some 
features derived from early Gothic of 
Ile-de-France, 263I. 
Romanesque architecture of, 43, 44, 263 1 . 
See Romanesque architecture oi Bur- 
gundy. 

Bury, village church of, early systematic use 
of pointed arch, 64; vaulting shafts, 99; 
vaults of the aisle, 64 (cuts), of the 



432 



INDEX 



nave, 67 (cut), 268; rib profiles, 330, 
333 (cut). 
Buttresses, first functionally developed, 11; 
effect of the introduction of the pointed 
arch on, 17 ; general character in 
Gothic buildings, 20; triforium vaults 
served for, in earlier buildings, 99; 
earliest suggestion of Gothic, 33 ; early 
use of, 48, 49; set-offs of, profiled 
like string-courses, 327 ; sculpture on, 
369. 370. 

Flying, rudimentary forms, 13, 14; be- 
come an external feature, 17, 89, 
101 ; double form of, 112, 150 (cut); 
development of, 144-152; adjustment 
to vault pressures, 148; first attempt 
to make them an ornamental feature, 
148 (cut) ; development of the pinnacle, 
150-152; the perfect Gothic buttress 
system, 251. 

Of the cath. of Amiens, 150 (cut), 215, 
251; ch. of Auvers, 148; Abbaye-aux- 
Dames at Caen, 12, 13, 14 (cut); 
Abbaye-aux-Hommes at Caen, 12, 13, 
(cut), 174 (cut); cath. of Chartres 
150; ch. of Gonesse, 148; ch. of 
si. Martin of Laon, 144 (cut), 145; 
cath. of Meaux, 120 (cut), 150; cath. 
of Noyon, 89, nave, 148 (cut) ; cath. 
of Paris, 112, 182; ch. of St.-Ger- 
main-des-Pres, Paris, 101 (cut), 145, 
148; cath. 11I Reims, 150 (cut), 151 
(cut) ; ch. of St. Kemi of Reims, 148; 
ch. of St.-Germer-de-Fly, 14 1 , 78, 79 
(cut), 144, Sainte Chapelle, 327 (cut); 
ch. of St. Leu d' Esserent, apse, 146 
(cut), nave, 147 (cut); cath. of Senlis, 
99, 178 (cut) ; cath. of Soissons, apse 
and choir, 149 (cut). 

English, no entirely logical and well- 
adjusted buttress system, 226; earliest 
instance of the flying buttress, 200; of 
Chichester cath., 200; Lincoln cath., 
choir, 205 (cut), nave, 214 (cut), 215, 
presbytery, 223 (cut) ; ch. of St. Mary, 
New Shoreham, 209; Rievaulx abbey, 
210; Salisbury cath., 218. 

German, none in the cath. of Bamberg, 
240 ; of the decagon of St. Gereon of 
Cologne, 244; cath. of Freiburg, 251; 
cath. of Limburg, nave, 241, 243, choir 
and apse, 244; Magdeburg cath., nave, 
241 : ch. of SS. Peter and Paul at 
Neuweiler, 250. 

Italian, ch. of St. Francis of Assisi, 266; 
ch. of St. Francis of Bologna, 267; 
ch. of San Galgano, 263. 

Roman, n. 

Romanesque, n (cut), 12 (cut). 

Spanish, cath. of Burgos, 294 (cut); cath. 
of Toledo, 296. 



Byland, abbey church, Romanesque in 
principle, 210; equilateral arches, 217; 
vaulting shafts not functionally devel- 
oped, 210. 

Byzantine architecture, first important in- 
novations in vaulting involving struc- 
tural progress, 31 ; further development 
of, 32; its character illustrated in the 
ch. of St. Sophia at Constantinople, 32 ; 
domical groined vault most pregnant 
innovation in, 32, 36 ; features anticipat- 
ing western Romanesque and Gothic, 
33, 36, 309; its innovations in vaults 
and capitals made Gothic style possible, 
309; development of bases, 319, of 
capitals, 304, 307 ; vaults, 32; openings, 
155 (cut). 

Byzantine art, influence upon mediaeval 
sculpture of Southern Gaul, 361, 362. 

Byzantine illuminations, exhibit much grace 
and expression, 361 (cuts). 

CAEN, Abbaye-aux-Dames, its structure 
compared with Wells cath., 219 (cut), 
with cath. of Pisa, 428 ; buttresses, 12, 
13, 14 (cut) ; capitals, sculpture of, 
380 (cut); clerestory, 208 (cut); tri- 
forium, 219, 220 (cut) ; coupled vault- 
ing shafts, 290 1 ; vaults, 12, 13, 14 
(cut), 46. 
Abbaye-aux-Hommes, first use of sexpar- 
tite vault, 48,92; bases, 319; buttresses, 
12, 13 (cut), 174 (cut) ; facade, 174 
(cut); vaulting shafts, 48 (cut) ; vaults, 
12, 13 (cut), 47, 48 (cut). 
Church of St. Nicholas, choir, 46. 

Cahier and Martin, Melanges d'Arche- 
ologie, 383 !. 

Cambronne, church of, nave, 68. 

Canestrelli, L'Abbazia di San Galgano, 
263 1. 

Canterbury cathedral, its choir the source 
of the Early English style, 196 (cut) ; 
the work of William of Sens and of 
English William, 198; its influence 
traced in Lincoln cath., 201 ; bases of 
the choir, 206 (cut), 346; capitals, 206 
(cut) ; clerestory, 198, 208 ; piers, 196, 
205-207 (cut) ; ribs and vaults, 196 ; 
tower, 232; triforium, 197; vaulting 
shafts, 196 (cut), 207 (cut). 

Capitals, Byzantine, earliest to be suitably 
adapted to arched construction, 32, 33, 
304 (cut) ; great influence of, on 
Gothic style, 309. 
Gothic, primary function of, 304; de- 
velopment into a more spreading 
form, 308; early examples of, 308; 
the thickness of the abacus is in pro- 
portion to the expansion of the bell, 
313 (cuts) ; abacus and bell sometimes 



INDEX 



433 



wrought of separate stones in Roman- 
esque period, in Gothic, carved out of 
one block, 313; profiles of, 314-317 
(cuts) ; Corinthian alone of the ancient 
orders influenced the art of the Middle 
Ages, 316; capitals of the last part 
of the 12th cent, unequalled by those 
of any other age or style, 316 ; used 
ornamentally as in tracery of large 
openings, 313 ; profile of the abacus, 
315, of the bell, 316; crockets, 316, 
317; profiles of archivolt and vault 
ribs determine form and adjustment of 
capitals, 334 ; influence of nature traced 
in the development of the leafage, 385- 
389, exemplified in the triforium of the 
nave of Paris, 390; naturalism carried 
almost too far in the chapel of the 
catechists, 391 (cut). 

Of cath. of Amiens, 140, 141 (cuts) 314,, 
317 (cut) ; cath. of Autun, nave, 385 
(cut) ; ch. of San Vincent of Avila, 
289; Abbaye-aux-Dames of Caen, 386 
(cut) ; ch. of St. Sophia of Constanti- 
nople, 32, 304 (cut), 308; ch. of Sta. 
Maria in Cosmedin, 306 (cut), 313; 
ch. of St. Evremond of Creil, 315 (cut) ; 
ch. of Jumieges, 308 (cut) ; cath. of 
Laon, triforium, 313 (cut), 387, 392; ch. 
of St. Ambrogio of Milan, 307 ; abbey 
ch. of Morienval, 308, 313 (cut) ; cath. 
of Noyon, 310 (cut), choir, 386; cath. 
of Paris, ground story, 311, 313 (cut), 
314 (cut), choir, 113 (cuts), 188 1 , 
nave, 115 (cuts), triforium of choir, 
311 (cut), of nave, 312 (cut), 387, 388 
(cuts), 390, chapel of the catechists, 
391 (cut) ; ch. of St.-Germer-de-Fly, 
apsidal aisle, 312 (cut) ; ch. of St. Leu 
d'Esseient, 310, 392; cath. of Senlis, 
92, 99, 308-311, 385 (cut), of the choir 
and nave, 313, of the triforium, 387 
(cut) ; cath. of Soissons, choir, 129 
(cut), 387; ch. of Vezelay, porch, 385. 

English, 338-344; the abacus generally 
round, 338 ; admirable character of 
many of the earliest English capitals, 
338; evidences of French influence, 
339. 3431 crockets become heavy and 
meaningless, 339, 343; redundance of 
ornament in the later forms, 342; the 
local style of Glastonbury and Wells, 
343 ; the moulded form without foliate 
sculpture, 344 (cut) ; profiling of abacus, 
344; foliate sculpture of, 405; arti- 
ficiality increases after the first quarter 
of the 13th cent., 406; of Beverley min- 
ster, 344; Canterbury cath., 206 (cut) ; 
Chichester cath., 200 ; Lincoln cath., tri- 
forium of east transept, 338 (cut), choir, 
207 (cut), 338, west transept, 341 (cut), 
2 F 



north choir screen, 342, 343 (cut), 344 
(cut) ; Salisbury cath., 344; Southwell 
cath., 344; Wells cath., transept and 
east end, 343 ; Westminster abbey, 344. 
German, 353-355 ; persistence of Roman- 
esque forms, 353; French models in- 
troduced, 353, 355; English influence 
in, 354; distinctly German form of, 
354; abaci poor, 355 ; over-naturalism 
and lack of functional character, 409; 
of Bonn, 353; ch. of St. Gereon, 
Cologne, 353 ; cath. of Freiburg, 355 ; 
ch. of Heisterbach, 353 (cut) ; of 
Magdeburg, 353 (cut) ; Strasburg cath., 
355; Liebfrauenkirche of Trier, 246, 
354- 
Italian, 355-357; little regard to func- 
tional needs, 356; of cath. of Florence, 
not true capitals, 357 ; ch. of Sta. Croce, 
357 ; ch. of Sta. Maria Novella, 356 
(cut). 
Roman, 306; Byzantine influence on, 306. 
Spanish, 359; of cath. of Burgos, 359; 

cath. of Salamanca, 286, 359. 
See also Abacus ; Profiles; Sculpture. 

Carcassonne, church of St. Nazaire, nave 
and aisles of equal height, 249. 

Carlovingian epoch, architecture of, ex- 
hibits few innovations on established 
forms, 33, 34. 

Carter, John, The Ancient Architecture of 
England and Collection of Ancient 
Buildings i?i England, 3 \ 

Casamari, church of, west front, 278. 

Cathedrals, the spirit which gave rise to 
them, 25 ; organization of the work- 
men, 398 ; cath. building in France 
and England, 424, 425. 

Cattaneo, L'Architettura in Italia dal 
Secolo VI al Mille Circa, 33 1 , 34 1 , 35 l , 
36 !; discussion in regard to intro- 
duction of alternate system of vaulting 
into Normandy, 46 2 . 

Caumont, A. de, Abeccdaire d'Archeolo- 
gie, 5 3 ; Architecture Religieuse, 6 1 ; 
his misconception of Gothic architec- 
ture, 6. 

Chalons-sur-Marne, church of, apse, 240. 

Chamant, church, spire and dormers, 183 
(cut), 184. 

Chambly (Oise), church, facade, 173. 

Champagne, church, facade, 173 (cut). 

Champeaux (Seine-et-Marne), facade, 173. 

Chapels, apsidal. See Apsidal chapels. 

Chapels, transept. See Transept chapels. 

Chapter-house of English cathedrals, 235. 

Charles VIII of France, influence of, on 
architecture, 2. 

Chartres, cathedral, date of construction, 
134 1; use of round arch in clerestory, 
136; apsidal chapels, 170; bases, 322; 



434 



INDEX 



buttresses, 150; length of the nave, 
234; parapet, 188; piers and vaulting 
shafts, nave, 137 ; porches, transept, 
172; portals, transept, 172; sculpture, 
360, of west front, 367-369 (cut), cen- 
tral portal, 382, porches, 396; spire, 
184 (cut) ; stained glass, Jesse window, 
419 (cut) ; transept, 172; vaults and 
ribs of the apse, 164 (cut,) of the nave, 
135 (cut). 

Chatel-Censoir, oblong vault construction, 
661. 

Chester cathedral, choir not true Gothic, 
221. 

Chevet. See Apse. 

Chichester cathedral, mixed character of, 
200; buttresses, 200; capitals, 200; 
piers, 199 (cut), 200; vaulting shafts, 
199. 

Choisy, i: Art de BMr chez les Romains, 
15I, 32 ; L Art de Batir chez les Byzon- 
tins, 32. 

Christian art and pagan art, difference of 
motive. 380. 

Church of St. Pierre, 137, 138 (cut) ; piers 
of the nave, 137 ; string-course, 326 
(cut), 328. 

Church buildings, the centre of social and 
communal interest, 2. 
See also Cathedrals. 

Cistercian architecture of Italy, Burgundian 
types reproduced in, 260, 261 ; facades 
usually conform in outline with the 
buildings themselves, 278. 

Cistercian order of monks introduce pointed 
architecture of Burgundy into Italy, 
260, 263. 

Classe, church of St. Apollonare in, pilaster 
strip, 33. 

Clerestory, in early Gothic buildings, 131 ; 
use of round arch in, 135 (cut), 136; 
result of the enlargement of the open- 
ings, 160; in two planes characteristic 
of the Early English style, 198, 208 
(cut) ; characteristic Norman type, 208 ; 
of cath. of Amiens, 160 ; Abbaye-aux- 
Dames, 208 (cut) ; cath. of Chartres, 
135, 136 (cut); cath. of Noyon, 155; 
cath. of Paris, 131, 153 (cut), 158, 159; 
ch. of St. Leu d'Esserent, 131, 132 
(cut), 155 (cut) ; ch. of Vezelay, 44. 
The English type contrasted with the 
French, 217; of Canterbury cath., 198, 
208 ; Lichfield cath., nave, 225 ; Lincoln 
cath., choir, 208 (cut), presbytery, 223 
(cuts) ; Salisbury cath., 216. 
German, of cath. of Bamberg, 240; 
Magdeburg cath., 241 ; Strasburg cath., 
252; the Liebfrauenkirche of Trier, 

245- 
Italian, character of the openings, 277, 



278 ; of cath. of Florence, 275, 277 ; ch. 
of Sta. Maria Novella, Florence, 208, 
277; cath. of Orvieto, 273; cath. of 
Siena, 277 ; ch. of the Frari in Venice, 
272. 
Spanish, 286, 298 ; cath. of Burgos, 293, 
294; cath. of Leon, 296, 298; ch. of 
Santa Maria de Irache, 290; cath. of 
Toledo, 296. 
Clermont-Ferrand, church of Notre Dame 

du Port, 43; sculpture, 362. 
Cluny, abbey, church of, 43. 
Cockerell, Iconography of the west front 
of Wells Cathedral, 360 2 ; Monograph 
on the Sculpture of 1 1 'ells, 403 1 . 
Coifs, Jean-Francois, La Filiation Genealo- 
gique de toutes les Ecoles Gothiques, 5 2 . 

Cologne, cathedral, choir of, date, 252; 
structural system, completely Gothic, 
252, not German, but an importation 
from France, 253,354; Fergusson on 
its defects, 252 1 ; German in its orna- 
mental details, 354; arch mouldings, 
355; capitals, 354 (cut), 409; foliate 
sculpture, 409; roof of the aisle, 253; 
disappearance of wall surfaces in tri- 
forium, 252, 253 ; vaults, 252. 
Decagon of St. Gereon, date, 244; struc- 
tural character peculiar, 244 ; buttresses, 
244; capitals, 353 ; openings, 244; piers 
and vaulting shafts, 244 ; vaults, 244. 
Church of St. Kunibert, 248. 

Columns, engaged, in Roman buildings, 11. 

Columns. See Piers ; Vaulting shafts ; 
Capitals ; Bases. 

Communes, French, influence on architec- 
tural works, 87. 

Constantinople, church of St. Sophia, type 
of earliest Byzantine development, 32; 
bases, 319 (cut) ; capitals, 33, 304 
(cut) ; piers, 32, 33, 90; domical 
groined vaults, 32. 

Convention in Gothic sculpture, 24, 396. 

Corbeil, church of Notre Dame, sculpture 
of, 369. 

Corbels, sculpture of, 369 1 ; of cath. of 
Amiens, 369 1 ; ch. of St.-Germain-des- 
Pres, Paris, choir, 99; ch. of St.-Ger- 
mer-de-Fly, 75 (cut), 99. 

Corbel-table, 36 ; common in England, 348. 

Cornngham church, 235. 

Corroyer, L Architecture Gothique, 31 1 ; 
his theory deriving Gothic system from 
Byzantine dome on pendentives, 31' 2 . 

Cosmedin, church of Sta. Maria in, capitals, 
306 (cut), 313. 

Creil, church of St. Evremond, neglect 
and abuse of, 101 2 ; abacus, 315 (cut) ; 
triforium archivolts, 94; concealed 
flying buttresses, 101 ; piers, 101 ; 
string-course, 324 (cut). 



INDEX 



435 



Crockets, of Corinthianesque capitals, 316 
(cut); become simpl^ornamental fea- 
tures, 317 ; finally an unmeaning excres- 
cence, 317 ; specially beautiful in the 
triforium of Paris, 388 (cut) ; of English 
cathedrals, 339, 340, 343; excessive 
projection characteristic of English 
work, 343 (cut). 
See capitals. 

Ctesiphon, ancient use of arcades, 31. 

Cyma recta, in Italian architecture, 358. 

DARTIKN, Etude sur I' Architecture Lom- 

barde, 36 s . 
De Ghihermy, Itineraire Archeologique de 

Paris, 153 2 . 
Dehio, Die Kirchliche Baukunst des Abend- 

landes, 240 * 2 , 242 l , 245 K 
De L'Orme, stimulated the Renaissance 

movement in France, 2. 
Demaison, Les Architects de la Cathedrale 

de Reims, 157I. 
Dieulafoy, L' Art Antique de la Perse, 31 3 , 

42I. 
Dijon, cathedral of Notre Dame, piers and 

vaulting shafts of the nave, 119. 
Dion, A. de, on the church of St. Germer- 

de-Fly, 79 1 . 
Domes, absence of Gothic principles in, 

32 ; on pendentives in Spanish pointed 

buildings, 284 ; of cath. of Salamanca, 

286-289. 
Domfront, church of Notre-Dame-sur-l'Eau, 

45- 
Doming of vaults, 17. 
Dormers, gabled, of the ch. of Chamant, 

spire, 183 (cut). 
Drip mouldings, Gothic, 325. 
Durham cathedral, equilateral arches, 

217. 

Early English architecture. See English 

pointed architecture. 
East End (of churches), French, 161; 
square forms are numerous in smaller 
churches, apsidal most characteristic, 
161 ; of Laon cath., 161. 

English, 226-228 ; of Ely cath., 227 (cut) ; 
Lincoln cath., 227 ; Worcester cath., 
228. 

German, follow French models, 256. 

Italian, heavily walled, 280; square form 
very common, 280; of ch. of St. 
Andrea of Vercelli, Sta. Maria No- 
vella, cath. of Prato, cath. of Orvieto, 
280. 

See also Apse ; apsidal chapels ; apsidal 

aisles. 

Ely cathedral, choir not true Gothic, 221 ; 

arch mouldings, 348; base profiles, 

345 ; east end, 227 (cut) ; equilateral 



arches of presbytery, 217 ; sculpture 
of the Prior's gateway, 400. 

England, the conditions for the growth of 
art less favourable than in France, 425 ; 
absence of the commune, 425; the 
cathedrals originated in monastic es- 
tablishments, 425 ; influence of, on 
German architecture, 354; of foreign 
rather than of native origin, and eccle- 
siastical rather than popular, 426 ; 
French influence on, 426; the English 
element at last predominated in the 
perpendicular style, 427. . 

English architecture, in the time of Jones 
and Wren, 3 ; in the Middle Ages 
it was Anglo-Norman architecture, 201, 
221, 236, 426. 

English glass, 423. 

English perpendicular architecture, 427. 

English pointed architecture, 191-236 ; date 
of transitional movement, 191 ; early 
use of pointed vaulting on ribs in 
Malmesbury abbey, 191 (cut) ; use 
of the pointed arch in early abbey 
churches of the 12th cent., 193, 195 ; 
its Gothic elements begin at Canterbury, 
191, 196. (cut) ; triforium usually open 
to the aisle roof, 192, 208 ; masonry of 
vaulting in, 195; some of its character- 
istics illustrated in Chichester cath., 
199; Lincoln cath., 200-208; the ch. of 
St. Mary, New Shoreham, 208; chs. of 
Byland and Whitby, 210; Ripon cath., 
210; Gothic vaulting was substantially 
perfected in France before the choir 
of Lincoln cath. was begun, 203; su- 
perfluous ribs general in English pointed 
buildings, 203, 212; compared with 
contemporary French work, 209, 211; 
instances of vaulting shafts being used 
as decorative features only, 210, 223 ; 
early monuments show lack of unity 
and consistency of inventive purpose, 
211; its character in the first part of 
the 13th cent., 211-222; illustrated by 
the nave of Lincoln cath., 212-215, OI 
Salisbury, 215-218, of Wells cath., 
218-221, and of other buildings, 221; 
employs the pointed arch, but in most 
cases without genuine structural sig- 
nificance, 211, use of hood mouldings, 
214; clerestory still walled in, 216, 
pier arches frequently equilateral, but 
the Anglo-Norman type lancet, 217; 
character of the openings, 217, 226; 
still essentially a Norman product, 221; 
inferior to Gothic of France in archi- 
tectural nobility, but has often a pecul- 
iar beauty and expression, 221 1 ; its 
character in the later 13th cent., 222- 
225, illustrated by the presbytery of 



43 6 



IXDEX 



Lincoln, 222; by the nave of Lich- 
field, 224; lack of structural and ar- 
tistic propriety, 224; the piers and 
buttresses never structurally complete 
and functional, 226; east ends gener- 
erally square, 226; transept facades, 
228; western facade, 228-232, as a 
rule, is devoid of Gothic character, 
231 ; towers, 232 ; general provision 
for a tower at crossing of nave and 
transept, 232; spires rare in the early 
period, 233; general plan and propor- 
tion of churches, 234; use of two tran- 
septs common, 234; great length and 
proportionate lowness, 234; vaulted 
polygonal chapter-houses, 235 ; absence 
of vaulting in the smaller village 
churches, 235; substantially only an 
ornamental modification of Norman 
Romanesque, 236; profiles of mould- 
ings, 338, 352; capitals, 338-344, of 
the abacus of, 344 ; bases, 344-347 ; 
string-courses, 347, 348; arch mould- 
ings and vault ribs, 348-352; compared 
with French Gothic as to mouldings of 
various kinds, 351, 352. 
See also Sculpture, English. 

English profiles. See Profiles, English. 

English sculpture. See Sculpture, English. 

English writers on Gothic Architecture, 3. 

Enlart, C, Notes sur les Sculptures exeat tecs 
apres la pose du X/ e au XIII s Steele, 
66 1 ; / 'illard J? Hoiinecourt ct les Cister- 
cian, 129 1 ; Origines Francaises de 
V Architecture Gotkique en Italic, 260-, 
26 1 1 ', 262 1 , 264-; Les Origines de 
I' Architecture Gotkique en Espagne 
ct en Portugal, 299 1 . 

Eu (Seine-Inferieure) church, facade, 173. 

Expression in art, usually superior in the 
early masters of a school, 371 ; the 
chief motive of Gothic sculpture, 379. 

Exterior, of Gothic churches, 187-189; the 
general proportions criticised, 187 ; ex- 
amples of, the abbey ch. of St. Leu 
d'Esserent and cath. of Reims, 188, 
189 (plates). 
English, general character of, 226, 352; 
of chapter-houses, 235. 

Facades, Gothic, constructive principles 
least manifest in, 172; analysis and 
development of, 172-182; largely a 
modification of Romanesque forms, 

178 ; the chief field for the display of 
sculpture, 374; of cath. of Amiens, 

179 (plate), sculpture of south portal, 
377. 37 8 ; cath. of Bourges, 179; 
Abbaye-aux-Hommes at Caen, 174 
(cut) ; ch. of Champagne, 173 (cut) ; 
cath. of Chartres, 367-369 (cut), 382; 



cath. of Paris, 178 (plate) ; cath. of 
Reims, 180; ch. of St. Denis, 175; 
cath. of Senlis, 176 (cut), 177. 
English, 228-232; few early ones remain, 
229; have little approach to Gothic 
character, 231 ; of Lincoln cath., 229 
(plate); Peterborough cath., 231; 
Ripon cath., 231; St. Albans Abbey, 
232; Salisbury cath., 230; Selby Abbey, 
232 ; Wells cath., 230. 
German, 254 ; of Limburg cath., 254 ; the 
Lorenzkirche of Nuremberg, 254; ch. 
of St. Elizabeth of Marburg, 255; cath. 
of Strasburg, 256. 
Italian, 278-280; ch. of St. Francis of 
Assisi, 278 ; ch. of St. Francis of Bo- 
logna, 278 ; ch. of Fassanova, 264 ; ch. 
of Sta. Maria della Spina at Pisa, 279; 
cath. of Siena, 279. 
Spanish, 298 ; of ch. of San Vincent of 
Avila, 299; cath. of Burgos, 299; cath. 
of Leon, 300 ; cath. of Toledo, 300. 
See also Transept facade. 

Falaise, church of St. Gervais, 45. 

Fan vaulting, the first step toward, 212, 213. 

Fassanova, church of, shows Burgundian 
influence, 262 ; opening, west front, 278 ; 
vaults, 264. 

Fergusson, History of Architecture in All 
Countries, 130 1 , 252 1 , 264 1 . 

Flamboyant Gothic style of France, some- 
thing analogous to it in vaulting shafts 
and ribs of cath. of Florence, 275. 

Flavian amphitheatre at Rome. See Rome. 

Flaxman, Lectures on Sculpture, 360. 

Fleury, Georges Rohault de, Les Monu- 
ments de Pise, 280 1 . 

Florence, cathedral of, Arnolfo's original de- 
sign, 274; enormous height of ground- 
story arcade, 274 ; want of true capitals 
or bases to the piers, 274 (cut), 357; 
contains little of Gothic character, 276; 
apse, 280; bases, 357 1 ; buttresses, 275; 
campanile, 281, 412; dome, 275; open- 
ings, 277, of the campanile, 278, 281 ; rib 
profiles, 358 ; sculpture of the campanile, 
411, of the door jambs, 412, of the 
baptistery gates, 413 ; string-course, 
359; tower, 280; sameness of section 
and magnitude of vaulting shafts and 
ribs, 274, 275 ; vaulting shafts all spring 
from the same level, 274; vaults, 274. 
Badia, tower, 280. 

Church of Sta. Croce, aisle roofs, 271 ; 
apse, 271; bases, 357; buttresses, 268 
(cut) ; capitals, 357; facade, 279; open- 
ings, 271, 272 ; piers, 271; rib profiles, 
358 ; vault of the apse, 271, 272. 
Church of Sta. Maria Novella, date, 267; 
great height of ground-story arcade, 
268 (cut) ; bases, 357 ; capitals, 356, 



INDEX 



437 



357 (cut) ; clerestory openings, 268, 
277 ; tower, 280 (cut) ; transept facade, 
280 ; vaults, 267, 268. 
Church of Or, San Michele, openings, 278. 

Flying buttresses. See Buttresses, flying. 

Form, plastic rendering of, brought to per- 
fection, 381. 

Forster, Monuments d' Architecture, etc., 

237 1 . 245 1 - 

Fountains Abbey, vaults and piers of the 
aisle, 194 (cut) ; of the nave, 194. 

France, artificial state of society at close of 
15th cent., 2 ; conditions under which 
architecture was practised, 398, 425; 
the Communes, 425; Abbot Haymon 
on the popular enthusiasm, 426. 

Freeman on the duration of French influ- 
ence in England, 427; on the perpen- 
dicular style, 427 s . 

Freiburg, cathedral of, date, 251 ; imperfect 
Gothic character of, 251 ; buttresses, 
251; capitals, 355; tower and spire, 
258 ; vaults not true Gothic, 251. 

French architecture, 58-190 ; great activity 
of, in the 12th cent., 189; of the Renais- 
sance, 2. 

French Gothic architecture. See Gothic, 
French. 

French sculpture. See Sculpture, Gothic, 
in France. 

French writers on Gothic architecture, 5. 

Frescos. See Painting. 

Gable, of a Gothic nave not the true roof, 
173 ; ornamental use of, 179 ; of cath. 
of Amiens, facade, 179 (plate) ; cath. 
of Reims, facade, 180. 

Gargoyle, early use of, 189 1 . 

Gelnhausen, cathedral, towers, 256, 257; 
spires, 257. 

German pointed architecture, 237-259; a 
later development than in France and 
England, 237; its imperfect progress 
illustrated by the cams, of Bamberg, 
238; Magdeburg, 240; Limburg, 241; 
the Liebfrauenkirche of Trier, 245 ; ch. 
of St. Elizabeth of Marburg, 248 ; ch. 
of SS. Peter and Paul at Neuweiler, 
250 ; cath. of Freiburg, 251 ; Strasburg 
cath., 252 ; Gothic system imitated 
without a full understanding of its prin- 
ciples, 241 ; chs. with all three aisles 
the same height, 249 ; the French Gothic 
slow in affecting German Romanesque 
251,427; French features ingrafted on 
German Romanesque without chang- 
ing its structural character, 251; chs. 
with many Gothic features but an 
imperfect Gothic structural system, 2^0, 
251 ; no native Gothic development, 
253; meaningless structural modifica- 



tions and details introduced, 253 ; .char- 
acter of the facade, 254; east ends, 
256 ; transept facades, 256 ; towers, 257 ; 
typical spire of, 258 ; spires in Roman- 
esque chs., 257; arch mouldings, 355; 
bases, 355 ; capitals, 353-355 • influence 
of English architecture on, 354. 

German profiles. See Profiles, German. 

German Renaissance architecture, 3. 

See also Romanesque architecture of 
Rhenish Germany; Sculpture, German. 

German sculpture. See Sculpture, German, 

Ghiberti, the gates of the baptistery oi 
Florence, 413. 

Giotto, 379 ; sculptures of the campanile 
of Florence, 412. 

Gisors, church of, 122 (cut). 

Glass, stained. See Stained glass. 

Glastonbury Abbey, abacus, 344 ; beak 
moulding, 347 ; St. Joseph's chapel con- 
tains remains of Gothic vaulting, 210. 

Gloucester, cathedral, tower, 232. 

Gonesse (Seine-et-Oise), church of, piers 
and vaulting shafts of easternmost bay 
of the choir, 119; apse, early flying 
buttresses still extant, 148. 

Gonse, Louis, L 'Art Gothique, 64 1 . 

Gothic art, rudeness not characteristic of, 
21 ; a product of the fusion of Northern 
and Southern blood, 21 ; has much in 
common with classic art, 22 ; outgrowth 
of an impulse derived from the social 
improvements of the nth cent., 189. 

Gothic, French, architecture, incorrect ideas 
concerning, 1 ; the term applied in a 
spirit of contempt, 1 ; Italian distaste 
for, 1 ; an outgrowth and expression of 
Northern genius, 2 ; decline of, 2 ; in 
England and Germany, 3 ; revival of, 
in the 18th cent., 3; in England, 3; its 
essential principles not understood, 3 ; 
English writers on, 3; Coifs on, 5; 
French writers on, 5 ; Viollet-le-Duc on, 
7, 8; differs fundamentally from arched 
Roman and Romanesque, 7 ; definition 
of, 7; a system of balanced thrusts, 8; 
earliest steps toward, 8 ; in Lombardy, 
9 ; Romanesque elements retained in, 
9; the steps of the transition from 
Romanesque, 10 ; summary of general 
form and constructive features, 18 ; 
plan, 18 (cut) ; vaults and ribs, 19; 
piers, 19; walls, 20; buttresses, 20, 33; 
full development only brought out by 
three-aisled buildings, 20; the builders 
not governed by mathematical formu- 
las of proportion, 21 ; sculpture and 
painting employed in, 22; decline after 
the early part of the 13th cent., 25; 
early advance made by the monastic 
builders, 26; fuller development at the 



438 



INDEX 



hands of lay builders, 27 ; an archi- 
tecture of churches only, 27; close 
connection with the thought and feeling 
of the time, 28; immediately evolved 
out of the Romanesque of northern 
France, 29; features anticipated in 
early Byzantine architecture, 33; limits 
within which it is confined, 58; scanti- 
ness of written records, 58 ; first step in 
final transformation from Romanesque 
into Gothic illustrated in the apse 
of ch. of Morienvai, 62; development 
primarily structural, 79 ; developed first 
in the interior, later in the exterior of 
the building, 79, 97, 98, 166 (cuts) ; 
irregularities of, produce tonus of added 
charm, 84; influence of communes on, 
87; height of perfection in masonry 
reached, 96; choir and east end gen- 
eral. y built first, 101 ; its principles 
illustrated in the various members of 
the structure, the vaults and their sup- 
ports, no, piers, 123, buttresses, 144, 
pinnacles, 150, openings, 153, apses, 
161, apsidal aisles, 166, transepts, 171, 
facades, 172, spires, 182; forms estab- 
lished by remodellings as well as by 
new constructions, 106; its real begin- 
nings are best traced in the smaller 
extant monuments, no; minor differ- 
ences in early structures united with a 
substantial unity of purpose, 122; mixed 
forms of art produced, 123; concen- 
tration of vault thrusts an essential 
feature of, 132 (cut) ; the pointed arch 
and the peculiar manner of adjusting 
the structural arches, form important 
characteristics of, 136 ; the use of the 
round arch, 136 ; logic of Gothic design, 
141, 143 ; the foliy of exaggerating pro- 
portions, 142,252; general internal as- 
pect, 187, external, 187-189 (plates) ; 
buildings consist of vaulting sustained 
by piers and buttresses, 187 ; general 
prevalence of the church-building im- 
pulse, 189; Gothic a spontaneous and 
national movement, 190; union of 
structural and artistic principles in, 190; 
successive steps of its development, 
190; dates of rise and greatest perfec- 
tion, 190; compared with contemporary 
English pointed architecture, 209, 211; 
Gothic vaulting was substantially per- 
fected in France before the choir of 
Lincoln cathedral was begun, 203; 
functional members are all neces- 
sary to full development of Gothic 
character, 251 ; perfect buttress system, 
251 ; isolated Gothic features in Italian 
pointed architecture, 272, 277; towers, 
281; coupled vaulting shafts, 290; fur- 



nish models for Spanish pointed archi- 
tecture of the 13th cent., 293 ; made 
possible by innovations in Byzantine 
architecture, 309; its principles further 
studied in capitals, 304, bases, 317, 
string-courses, 327, rib profiles, 330, 
mullions and tracery, 335; relative size 
ot load and support in imposts, 312; 
abacus and bell of capital carved out 
of one block, 313 ; its distinctive char- 
acteristics not arbitrary inventions, but 
based on principles, 424; the system 
complete, progressive, and original in 
France alone, 424,428 ; the most splen- 
did architectural product thus far 
wrought in the world, 428 ; the condi- 
tion of France and the character of the 
French favourable to its development, 
424, 425 ; the conditions less favourable 
in England, 425-427; conditions in 
Germany also unfavourable, 427 ; no 
original development in Italy or Spain, 
428. 
In England. See English pointed archi- 
tecture. 
In Germany. See German pointed archi- 
tecture. 
In Italy. See Italian pointed architec- 
ture. 
In Spain. See Spanish pointed architec- 
ture. 

Gothic painting. See Painting in Gothic 
buildings. 

Gothic sculpture, vitality of, 22 ; compared 
with Greek sculpture, 23,375,376; its 
elements to be traced back to antiquity, 
23, 384; conventional character, 24; 
traditional principles of ornamentation 
retained, 24; organic life of, governed 
by architectural fitness, 24, 383, 397. 
See also Sculpture, Gothic, in France. 

Gournay, St. Hildevert of, church of, 103; 
south aisle of choir, 103 3 ; piers, 103, 
104 (cut) ; rib profiles, 332. 

Greek art, Gothic art has much in common 
with, 22; influence on Gothic sculpture 
through Byzantine illuminations and 
carvings in ivory, 361, 362. 

Greek genius in later architectural forms, 
306. 

Greek sculpture. See Sculpture, Greek. 

Griffe, or angle spur, in early Gothic bases, 
321, 322; ot ch. of St. Ambrogio of 
Milan, cath. of Paris, ch. of St. Louis 
of Poissy, cath. of Reims, 321 (cuts). 

Grotesque, its place in Gothic sculpture, 
381; its truth to nature, 383; restraint 
in early work, 383 ; in English sculpture, 
407. 

Guilhermy, F. de, Itineraire Archeologique 
de Paris, 37 1 1 . 



INDEX 



439 



HAYMON, Abbot, on the popular enthusi- 
asm for church building in France, 426. 

Heiligenstadt, towers of, 257. 

Heisterbach, church of, east end, date, 247; 
construction shows persistence of Ro- 
manesque principles, 247; capitals of 
the apse, 353 (cut), 354. 

Heronville, church, facade, 173. 

Hexham Abbey, bases of choir triforium, 
345 (cut). 

Hood moulding, rarely used in Gothic 
architecture before the 13th cent., 336 ; 
used externally it has the function of a 
dripstone, internally, is purely orna- 
mental, 336; of clerestory of Amiens, 
336 (cut) ; apse of cath. of Reims, 336 
(cut) ; ch. of St. Germer-de-Fly, choir 
and apse, 336, St. Chapelle, 336 (cut) ; 
Lincoln cathedral, nave, 214. 

Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, 201, 202. 

Ile-DE-France, prevalence of the church- 
building impulse in the 12th cent., 189; 
school of sculpture, 365 ; development 
of foliate sculpture, 385. 
See Romanesque architecture, Ile-de- 
France. 

Illuminated manuscripts, Byzantine, 361 
(cut). 
French, of 12th and 13th cents., furnish 
illustrations of the art of painting, 415; 
conventional and archaic, 416; back- 
grounds flat, no perspective, 416; the 
life of St. Denis in the national library 
of Paris, 416 (cut). 

Italian architecture founded on Greek and 
Roman types, 1, 428 ; the Romanesque 
of Italy not a structurally progressive 
style, 428. 

Italian painting. See Painting, Italian. 

Italian pointed architecture, 260-283 ; basili- 
can forms dominant until the close of 
the 12th cent., 260; introduced by Cis- 
tercians from Burgundy in the 13th 
cent., 260, 263; reproduction of types 
of Burgundian pointed architecture in, 
261, 262, 263 ; early churches showing 
direct foreign influence, 264-267 ; sex- 
partite vaulting rarely used, 266; the 
distinctively Italian type of, 267; vault- 
ing compartments of the nave usually 
square, 267; vault ribs all spring from 
the same level, 267, 268 ; uniform sys- 
tem of supports, 268 ; enormous height 
of ground-story arcade, 268, 274 ; 
tracery in, 270, 278; use of a corbelled 
gallery, 271, 273, 275; isolated Gothic 
features, 272, 277 ; general lack of real 
Gothic principles, 272, 273, 280, 283; 
no idea of the structural use of the 
pointed arch, 273; buttresses generally 



a pilaster strip, or carried on walls over 
the aisles, 275 ; use of iron tie-rods, 
275 ; triforium rarely found in, 276 ; the 
pointed arch in Southern Italy and 
Sicily has no relation to vaulting, 277; 
character of external openings, 277, 
278; facades, 278-280; east ends, 280; 
apsidal aisles rare in, 280; lack of a 
logical constructive sense, 280, 281 ; 
transept ends, 280 ; towers, 280-282 ; 
crowned by octagonal lanterns, 282; 
the true Gothic spire was never con- 
structed in Italy, 282 ; pinnacles having 
no logical meaning, 282, 283 ; decline 
of, after the 14th cent., 283. 

Jones, Inigo, his taste for the pseudo- 
classic orders, 3. 
Jumieges, church of, capitals, 308 (cut). 

KING, Handbook to the Cathedrals of Eng- 
land, 2 1 1 2 . 

Kirkstall Abbey, aisle vaults, 195 ; masonry 
of vaulting, 195; equilateral arches, 217. 

Kraft, Adam, sculpture of, 409. 

LAON, cathedral, capitals of the triforium, 

313 (cut), 392; east end, 161; piers and 
vaulting shafts, 117 (cut), of the two 
westernmost bays of the choir, 117, 
of the nave, 128 (cut) ; rib profiles, 
332; sculpture, capitals of triforium, 

314 (cut), 387, 392; transept, 171, 172. 
Church of St. Martin, buttress, 144 (cut), 

145- 

Leafage in Gothic sculpture, 383. 

Le Clerc, DLscours sur I'Etat des Beaux- 
Arts, 187 1 . 

Lefevre-Pontalis, Eug., L' Architecture Re- 
ligieuse da?is I ' Ancieti Diocese de Sois- 
sons, 46-, 59 1 ; Etude sur la date de 
l' Eglise de Saint-Germer, 64-; Etude 
sur le Chceur de V Eglise de Saint 
Martin-des-Champs a Paris, 70- ; dis- 
cussion on the introduction of alternate 
system of vaulting into Normandy, 46 2 ; 
on groin arches of early Gothic vaults, 
65 1 ; on vaults of the ch. of Bury, 68'- ; 
on ch. of St. Germer-cre-Fly, date, 71 1 , 
102 1 ; Gothic features, 79 1 ; on date 
of cath. of Senlis, S7 1 . 

Lenoir, Architecture Monastique, 27 1 . 

Leon, cathedral modelled after the French 
Gothic, 293, 296; lighter in structure 
than most Gothic buildings on Spanish 
soil, 296; apse has only five sides, 297 ; 
buttresses, 297 ; clerestory openings, 
296, 298 ; facade, 300 ; sculpture of 
west portal, 414; spire, 302; towers, 
302; transept ends, 301; vaulting sys- 
tem, 296. 



44Q 



INDEX 



Lerida, cathedral, 290, 292 1 . 

Lescot, stimulated the Renaissance move- 
ment in France, 2. 

Lichfield cathedral, nave of, 224, 225 ; apse, 
226 ; clerestory, 225 ; sculpture of west 
front, 404 ; vaulting shafts, 225 ; vaults 
and ribs, 224, 225. 

Liebfrauenkirche of Trier, the. See Trier. 

Uernes, in Lincoln cathedral, 213 (cut) ; in 
cath. of Toledo, 294. 

Limburg on the Lahn, cathedral, date, 241 ; 
interior largely Gothic in character, 241 
(cut), 244; likeness to the cath. of No- 
yon, 242, 243 ; Romanesque character 
of the exterior, 241, 244, 254, of the 
aisles, 243 ; apse, 243 ; bases, 355 ; but- 
tresses, 245, of the nave, 241, 243; of 
the choir and apse, 244; capitals, 353; 
facade, 254; piers, 243; ribs of the 
nave, 242, of the choir and apse, 244; 
triforium gallery, 243; vaulting shafts, 
243 ; vaults, 242-244. 

Lincoln cathedral, the choir and east tran- 
sept, 200-208 ; character and source 
of its style, 201 ; Parker's theory that 
the choir is purely English work, un- 
tenable, 200 1 ; original eastern termina- 
tion apsidal, 201 (cut) ; influenced by 
Canteibury cath., 201, 202, 205; the 
choir shows a good deal of Gothic 
character, 205 ; abaci of west transept 
and choir screen, 344 (cuts) ; arch 
mouldings, Norman influence shown 
in, 349, resemblance of, to those of 
Malmesbury abbey, 349, those of the 
choir and presbytery compared, 350; 
bases of the choir, 207 (cut), 345; but- 
tresses, compared with those of cath. 
of Amiens, 215, of the choir, 205 (cut), 
of the nave, 214 (cut), of the presby- 
tery, 223 (cut) ; capitals, 338-343 (cuts), 
of the choir, 207 (cut), 338, 405, tri- 
forium of east transept, 338, 405, west 
transept, 341, north choir screen, 342, 
343 (cut), 344; chapter-house, 235; 
height of choir, 235 ; clerestory, of the 
choir, 208 (cut), of the presbytery, 
223 (cuts); east end, 227; facade, 229 
(plate) ; Hemes, 213 (cut) ; nave, 212- 
215, date of construction, 212; open- 
ing in west transept (Dean's Eye), 228; 
piers, of the choir, 204, at transept 
crossing, 205-208 (cuts) , of the nave, 
213 (cut) , of the presbytery, 223 ; por- 
tals, 229; presbytery, or angel choir, 
222-224 (cut), date of construction, 
222, substantially a Norman structure, 
426, not an appropriate termination 
for the design, 208; ribs of the aisles, 
214, of the choir, 203, of the nave, 
212, 213 (cuts), of the presbytery, 222 



(cut) ; rib profiles of the presbytery, 
222 (cut), 351 (cut), of the choir, 351 
(cut) ; sculpture of west front, 400 (cut), 
of the angel choir, 403, of the choir 
buttresses, 403, capitals of Bishop 
Hugh's choir and transept, 405 (cut), 
those of the nave inferior, 406 (cut); 
string-course profiles, 347 (cut) ; tierce- 
rons of the nave, 212 (cut), of the 
presbytery, 222 ; tower, 232 (cut) ; tran- 
septs not true Gothic, 221; transept 
ends, 228 ; triforium, 208 ; vaulting 
shafts, of the aisles, 214, of the choir, 
204, at transept crossing, 205-208 (cut), 
of the nave, 213, of the presbytery, 
222, 223 ; vaults of the aisles, 214, of 
the choir, 202-204 (cuts), of the nave, 
212, 213 (cuts), of the presbytery, 222, 
of the east transept, 204 1 . 
Church of St. Mary le Wigford, 235. 

Lisieux, church of, piers, 122 ; rib profiles, 
35i- 

Lombard architecture, rise of, 34, 462 ; the 
existing buildings not wrought by the 
Lombards, 9, 34; a source of inspira- 
tion to subsequent Romanesque build- 
ers, 9 ; alternate system of vaulting, 
16 1 , 38 ; new architectural features, 34, 
36, 37 ; its character illustrated by the 
ch. of San Michele of Pavia and the 
ch. of St. Ambrogio of Milan, 36; use 
of domical groined vaults, 36; decline 
of, 40; the influence of its alternate 
system of vaulting on Norman architec- 
ture, 46 s ; piers, 37, 38 ; development 
of capitals, 307 ; sculpture, 410. 

London, Temple Church, base profiles of 
the choir, 345. 
Westminster Abbey. See Westminster 
Abbey. 

Longpont, abbey church of, string-course, 
328. 

Louis XIV of France, architecture under, 2. 

Lucca cathedral, triforium, vaulting system, 
276. 

Magdeburg, cathedral, date, 240; Gothic 
influence apparent throughout interior, 
240; apse, 240, 241 ; capitals have some- 
thing of Corinthianesque form, 353 
(cut) ; clerestory, 241 ; buttresses of 
the nave, 241 ; vaulting system, 240. 

Mainz, cathedral, 40 ; date, 238 ; vaults, 
238. 

Malmesbury abbey, compared with the ch. 
of St. Denis and other French build- 
ings, 192; its construction not a link in 
a chain of progress, 192 ; arch-mould- 
ings, 349 (cut) ; ribs and vaults of the 
aisle, 191 (cut) ; vaulting shafts, 191 
(cut) ; triforium, 192. 



INDEX 



441 



Mans, Le, cathedral, vaulting of apsidal 
aisle, 34, 170 ; sculpture of south portal, 

369- 

Mantes, church of, piers and vaulting shafts, 
116 (cut). 

Mantua, church of St. Andrea, tower, 282. 

Marburg, church of St. Elizabeth, 248 ; nave 
and aisles of equal height, 249 (cut) ; 
divided into two stories by openings 
only, 250 ; apse, 249 ; bases, 355 ; capi- 
tals, 354 ; facade has a distinctly Gothic 
form, 255 ; ill adjustment of the spires, 
257 (cut). 

Masonry, height of perfection in Gothic, 
reached, 96; of English and French 
vaults compared, 195; courses in 
vaulting, in, 130; of cath. of Sala- 
manca, 285. 

Meaux, cathedral, vaulting system, 120 
(cut) ; buttresses, 120 (cut), 150. 

Mediaeval legends and literature a source 
of inspiration to the cathedral builders, 
28. 

Merzario, Giuseppe, / Maestri Comaci?ii, g 2 . 

Milan, cathedral, a travesty of Gothic, 283. 
Church of St. Ambrogio, peculiar features, 
9 1 ; structural character, 39 ; compared 
with cath. of Siena, 273 ; use of the 
griffe, 321 ; bases, 319 ; capitals, 307 ; 
piers, 37 (cut), 38; ribs, 37; vaults, 
36-38. 
Church of San Vincenzo in Prato, Ro- 
manesque features in, 36. 

Moissac, sculpture of portal, 362 (cut), 363. 

Monastic orders, their energy in building, 
26; their schools for training in arts 
and sciences, 26; introduce improve- 
ments in construction, 27; limits to the 
development of architecture in their 
hands, 27 ; introduced the pointed style 
into Italy, 260. 

Mondjelia, basilica, monolithic arches, 6. 

Montalembert, Les Moines d' Occident, 27. 

Montier^en-der, church of, apse, 240. 

Montreal, church of, near Avallon, retains 
much of Romanesque, 261 ; vaults not 
true Gothic, 261. 

Morienval, abbey church, first step in final 
transformation of Romanesque into 
Gothic, 59, 190; early use of the pointed 
arch, 59 ; capitals, 308, 313 (cut) ; piers, 
50 (cut) ; rib profiles, 330, 332 (cuts); 
string-courses, 325 (cut) ; towers, 182 
(cut), 302; vaults, of the aisles, 50, 53 
(cut), of the apsidal aisle, 59 (cut), 
60-62 (cut). 

Mortet, V., Etude Historique et Archeolo- 
gique sur la Cathedrale et le Palais 
Episcopal de Paris, 91, 113 2 . 

Mouldings, hood. See Hood mouldings. 

Mouldings, profiles of Gothic. See Profiles. 



Arch. See Arch mouldings. 

Base. See Bases. 

Hood. See Hood mouldings. 

Of mullions. See Mullions. 

Rib. See Ribs. 

String. See String-courses. 
Miihlhausen, ch. of St. Mary at, nave and 

aisles of equal height, 249. 
Mullions, Gothic, oldest and finest forms 
are simple, 335 ; functions of, 335 ; in 
the declining Gothic, 336; of cath. of 
Amiens, 336 (cut) ; cath. of Reims, ap- 
sidal openings, 335 (cut) ; ch. of St. 
Germer-de-Fly, Sainte Chapelle, 336 
(cut) ; ch. of St. Leu d'Esserent, 335 
(cut). 

English, 352. 

German, 355. 

Nakhche-Roustem, altars of, early use 
of arch sprung from columns, 31. 

Nature, influence of, on Gothic foliate capi- 
tals, 386-392; tendency to over-natu- 
ralism, 391 ; direct imitation of, marks 
the decline of Gothic sculpture, 395; 
why it is not allowable, 396. 

Naves, generally constructed later than the 
choir and east ends, 101; of English 
and French cathedrals compared as to 
length and height, 168. 

Nesles, church of, facade, 173. 

Netley, abbey, equilateral arches, 217. 

Neuweiler, church of SS. Peter and Paul, 
marked advance of Gothic principles 
in, 250 ; vaults and buttresses, 250. 

Nevers, cathedral, sculpture of capitals, 396. 

New Shoreham, church of St. Mary, date 
of construction, 208 ; arch mouldings, 
349 ; buttresses, 209 ; piers and vault- 
ing shafts, nave, 209. 

Niches for sculpture not employed in early 
Gothic, 370. 

Nimes, Baths of Diana at, 41. 

Noel-St.-Martin, church of, neglect and 
abuse of, 101 2 ; early use of longitudinal 
rib, 63. 

Nogent-les-Vievges, church of, string- 
courses, 324 (cut). 

Norman architecture persisted in England 
after Gothic had developed in France, 
195 ; its influence on the early English 
architecture, 201 ; great length of the 
churches, 234; use of round abacus, 

3I4 1 - 
See Romanesque architecture in Nor- 
mandy. 

Norman conquest, influence of, on English 
architecture, 427. 

Northants, Ringstead church, spire, 233. 

Norton, C. E., Church Building in the Mid- 
dle Ages, 273 1 . 



442 



INDEX 



Norwich cathedral, arch mouldings, 348 ; 
length of the nave, 234. 

Notre Dame du l'urt at Clermont-Fer- 
rand, church of. See Clermont-Fer- 
rand. 

Notre-Dame-en-Vaux, church of, vaulting 
of apsidal aisle, 34. 

N overs, Geoffrey de, architect of Lincoln 
cathedral, 201. 

Noyon, cathedral, date of, 87 ; communal 
influence upon, 87, 88; advance of 
Gothic principles in, 190; arches of 
the choir, 88, 89, of the apse, 89; but- 
tresses, 89, 148 (cut) ; capitals, 310 
(cut), of the choir, 386; openings, 155; 
painting in the transept, 415 ; parapet, 
188'-; piers of the choir and apse, 89, 
90, of the nave, 107 ; rib profiles of 
the choir, 333; sculpture of capitals 
of the choir, 386, of string-course, 395 ; 
transept, 171, 172; triforium gallery, 
89, 107; vaulting shafts of the nave, 
107; vaults and ribs of the apse, 162, 
of the apsidal chapels, 94 (cut), of the 
nave, 106. 

Nuremberg, Lorenzkirche, facade, 254; 
spites, 257. 

Offset arch, 6. 

Openings, general character in Gothic 
buildings, 20; early character of, 77 
(plate), 153, 155; development of, 153- 
160, 166; compound, 155; constructive 
exigencies cause of change of form in, 
156; English compared with French, 
217, 226; gabled dormers in spires, 
183; wheel windows farther developed 
in France than in England, 228; of ch. 
of Q.ilb-Louzeh, 155 (cut) ; Byzantine 
church in Athens, 155 (cut) ; cath. of 
Noyon, 155 ; cath. of Paris, 153, 154 
(cut), 157-159; ch. of St.-Germain- 
des-Pies, 166; cath. of Reims, apsidal 
chapels, 157 (cut), 160; ch. of St. 
Denis, apsidal chapels, 83, 159 ; ch. of 
St. Germer-de-Fly, apsidal chapel, 74, 
triforium gallery, 77 (cut), 155; ch. of 
St. Leu d'Esserent, nave, 155 (cut) ; 
ch. of St. Louis of Poissy, 106 1 ; cath. 
of Senlis, apsidal chapels, 94, 159; cath. 
ofSoissons, 166. 

English, remain merely windows in walls, 
217 ; compared with the French, 217 ; 
of Lincoln cath., west transept, Dean's 
Eye, 228 ; of York cath., 228. 

German, of the ch. of St. Gereon of 
Cologne, 244 ; ch. of St. Elizabeth of 
Marburg, 250. 

Italian, 277, 278 ; of small dimensions, 
277 ; of the apse of the cath. of Arezzo, 
270, 271 ; ch. of Fassanova, 278. 



Spanish, of calh. of Burgos, 294, 298; cath. 

of Leon, 296, 298 ; cath. of Toledo, 

296, 298. 
See also Clerestory; Mullions; Tracery. 
Orbais, abbey church of, openings, 157 1 . 
Ornamental design, ancient principles of, 

23- 
Or San Michele of Florence, church of. 

See Florence. 
Orvieto, cathedral of, lack of structural use 

of the pointed arch, 273; facade, 279; 

east end, 280, 282 ; opening with tracery, 

278; pinnacles, 282; sculptured reliefs, 

411,412. 

Pagan and Christian art compared as to 
motive, 380. 

Painting, in Gothic buildings, 415-419; its 
limitations, 22; colouring of sculpture, 
399; less general than in other build- 
ings, 415; absence of uninjured ex- 
amples, its character must be deter- 
mined from illuminated manuscripts, 
415; conventional and decorative, 415- 
417 ; made little progress in connection 
with Gothic architecture, 417; its place 
supplied by stained glass, 417 ; in other 
countries essentially the same in char- 
acter during 12th and 13th cents., 
421. 
Italian, 421-423 ; advanced pictorial con- 
ception and treatment early manifested, 
421; the wall painting of the ch. of 
St. Francis of Assisi, 422; the monu- 
mental purpose of art constantly before 
the mind of the painter, 422; decora- 
tion his main object, but pictorial de- 
sign always united with it, 422; Viollet- 
le-Duc on the supposed antagonism 
between pictorial and decorative art, 

423 1 - 

Parapet, evolution and development of, 
188, 189 1 ; of caths. of Amiens, Beau- 
vais, Chartres, Paris, Reims, Soissons, 
188; cath. of Noyon, 1882. 

Parapeted gallery in Spanish and Italian 
churches, 297. 

Paray-le-Monial, church of, 43. 

Paris, cathedral of, Gothic principles first 
systematically carried out in, no; the 
old work still intact to a great degree, 
no; repairs and changes in the 13th 
cent., 154; advance of Gothic princi- 
ples in, 190 ; choir, date of construction, 
113; length of nave, 234; abacus, choir, 
124, 311 (cut), 313 (cut), nave, 124- 
128 (cuts), 312 (cut), 313, 314, north 
triforium, 315 (cuts) ; apse, 163 (cut), 
164; apsidal aisles, 168 (cut); arch 
mouldings, 331 ; bases of the choir, 
320 (cut), 321, nave, 324, westernmost 



INDEX 



443 



piers of the nave, 322 (cut), triforium 
of nave, 321 (cut) ; buttresses, 112, 182; 
capitals, influence of nature in sculp- 
ture of, 386, of choir, 113, 188, of 
triforium of choir, 311 (cut), 313, of 
nave, 115, 128 (cut), 313, of triforium 
of nave, 312 (cut), 313, 387, 388 (cuts), 
390, sixth pier of nave, 125 (cuts), 128 
(cut), seventh or westernmost pier, 
126 (cuis), 127 (cut), the chapel of 
the catechists, 391 (cut) ; clerestory, 
I 3 I < T 53 ( cut ). I 57. J 59. 'racery in, 
153 (cut), 158, 159; crockets, sculpture 
of, 388 (cuts) ; facade, 178 (plate), 182; 
glass, 420 ; openings, 153, 134 (cut) , 157- 
159 ; parapet, 188 ; piers, intended for 
quadripartite vaults, 112, of the choir, 
113, 114 (cuts), of the nave, 115 (cuts), 
116, sixth pier of the nave, 125 (cuts), 
128 (cut), seventh or westernmost pier, 
126 (cuts), 127 (cut), 130,200, 205, 322; 
portals, 370, 375-378 (cuts), 412; rib 
profiles, 332, 334; sculpture of the 
buttresses, 369, 370, of the transept 
facades, 370, south door of west front, 
370, west facade, 375, 376, 383 (cut), 
portal of the Virgin, 370, 375 (cut), 
378, 412, central portal, 376, portal of 
south transept, 377, portal of north 
transept, 378 (cut), 402, of grotesque 
figure in hood moulding, 383 (cut), 
capitals, 386, of the triforium, 312 
(cut), 387, 388 (cuts), 390, of the 
chapel of the catechists, 391 (cut), 
running leaf ornaments of the western 
facade, 393 (cuts) , of the Port Rouge, 
396; string-course of cornice, 326 (cut), 
of triforium, 329; tracery, 153 (cut), 
158, 159; transept, 171, 172; vaulting 
shafts of the choir, 113, 114 (cuts), 311, 
of the nave, 113 (cuts), 116; vaults of 
the nave and choir, no, in, apse, 163 
(cut), apsidal aisles, 168 (cut) ; Virgin 
of north transept portal, 378 (cut). 

Sainte Chapelle, 20; painting in, 415; 
stained glass of, 420. 

Church of St. Denis, origin of Gothic 
erroneously traced to, 58 ; advance of 
Gothic principles in, 190; date, 81; 
apsidal aisle and chapels, 81 (cut), 83, 
84 (cut), 85 s , 159, 168, 332; arch 
mouldings, 331 ; facade, 175; openings, 
^3' 159; piers of the nave, 142; rib 
profiles, 332; sculpture, 360, of north 
transept, 366, 367 (cut), of tympanums 
of the west portal, 371 ; stained glass, 
419,420; triforium archivolts, 94 ; vaults 
and ribs of the apsidal aisle and chapels, 
81 (cut), 83, 84 (cut), 855, 168, of the 
nave, 142. 

Church of St.-Germain-des-Pres, date, 



99 ; Gothic in exterior, 101 ; arches, 
100, 101 ; arch mouldings, 331; but- 
tresses, 101 (cut), 145, 148; openings, 
166; piers, ribs, and vaulting shafts, 
99, 100. 
Church of St.-Martin-des-Champs, bases, 
320 (cut) ; primitive groined vault of 
choir, 69; early structural use of ribs 
in apsidal vault, 70 (cut) ; rib profiles, 
33°- 

Parker, J. H., Introduction to the Study of 
Gothic Architecture, 200 1 ; date of tran- 
sitional movement in England, 191; on 
the choir of Lincoln cath., 204I; date 
of Ringstead church, 233 1 ; the sculp- 
ture of Wells cath., 402 1 . 

Parma, Baptistery, sculpture, 410. 

Pavia, church of S. Michele, source of 
architectural style, 9 1 ; groined vaults, 
36; compared with cath. of Siena, 273. 

Perigueux, church of St. Front, illustrates a 
sporadic type of Romanesque archi- 
tecture, 42; use of the pointed arch, 
42 ; dome, 287. 

Perpendicular style, English, 212; decadent 
character of, 427. 

Persian architecture, early use of the arch 
sprung from columns in the altars of 
Nakhche-Roustem, 31 ; use of blind 
shafted arcades at Ctesiphon, 31. 

Peterborough cathedral, aisle vaults of 
primitive Norman form, 211 (cut) ; arch 
mouldings, 348 ; facade, 231 ; sculpture, 
404. 

Piacenza, cathedral of, use of sexpartite 
vaults, 266. 

Pier arches, generally equilateral in France 
and frequently in England, 217 ; the 
Anglo-Norman type lancet, 217. See 
also Piers. 

Piers, general character in Gothic struc- 
tures, 19; earliest form of compound 
pier, 37 (cut) ; alternate arrangement, 
38, uniform, 64, 268 ; use of single 
round columns, 89, 92, 99, 123, rein- 
forced by engaged shafts, 126, by 
detached shafts, 128 (cuts) ; those of 
English pointed architecture and Gothic 
compared, 199; the load smaller than 
that of the supporting shaft, 312; of 
cath. of Amiens, 140, 199, 200; cath. 
of Beauvais, choir. 142, 143 (cut), apse, 
143; cath. of Bourges, 118, 265; eh. of 
St. Vved of Braisne, 120, 121, 246 (cut) ; 
ch. of St. Sophia, 32, 33, 90; cath. 
of Chartres, nave, 137 ; ch. of St. Pierre, 
137 ; ch. of St. Evremond, easternmost 
bay, 101 1 ; ch. of Notre Dame of Dijon, 
119; ch. of Gonesse, 119; cath. of 
Laon, 117 (cut), 12S (cut) ; oh. of 
Mantes, 116; abbey ch. of Morienval, 



444 



INDEX 



50 (cut) ; cath. of Noyon, choir and 
apse, 89, 90, nave, 107; cath. of Paris, 
112, choir, 113, 114 (cuts), nave, 115 
(cuts), 116, sixth pier of the nave, 125 
(cuts), 128 (cut), seventh or western- 
most pier, 126 (cuts), 127 (cut), 130, 
200, 205, 322; ch. of St. Denis, 142; 
cli. of St.-Germain-des-Pies, choir, 
99, 100; abbey ch. of Pontigny, 261; 
ch. of St. Germer-de-Fly, apsidal aisle, 
72 (cut), 73 (cut), apse, 74 (cut), 75 
(cut), choir, 99, nave, 102; ch. of St. 
Hildevert of Gournay, 103, 104 (cut) ; 
ch. of St. Leu d'Esserent, 134; cath. of 
Senlis, choir, 91, 92, 310, 311; cath. 
of Sens, apsidal aisles, 86, 87 (cut), 
nave, 119; cath. of Soissons, 128 (cut) ; 
abbey ch. of Vezelay, 261. 

English, 226; of Canterbury cath., 196, 
205-207 (cut) ; ot Chichester cath., 199 
(cut), 200; of Fountains abbey, 194 
(cut); Lincoln cath., choir, 204-208 
(cuts), nave, 213 (cut), presbytery, 223 ; 
of ch. of St. Mary, New Shoreham, 
nave, 209; of Ripon cath., choir, 210, 
transept, 211; of Rievaulx abbey, 210; 
Salisbury cath., 218; Wells cath., 218. 

Of cath. of Bamberg, 239; ch. of St. 
Gereon of Cologne, 244; cath. of Lim- 
burg, 243; cath. of Magdeburg, 240; 
cath. of Speyer, 238 ; of Liebfrauen- 
kirche of Trier, 246 (cut). 

Of ch. of Sta. Maria della Pieve in Arezzo, 
277; of cath. of Florence, 274; ch. of 
S. Ambrogio of Milan, 37 (cut), 38; 
ch. of San Galgano, 263; ch. of St. 
Andrea of Vercelli, 265. 

Ofch. of San Vincent of Avila,289; cath. 
of Burgos, 293, 294 ; cath. of Salamanca, 
286; cath. of Toledo, 295. 

See also Vaults ; Ribs ; Vaulting shafts. 
Pilaster strip, in Romanesque buildings, 11 
(cut), 12,36; forms earliest suggestion 
of Gothic buttress, 33. 
Pinnacle on buttresses, evolution of, 150; of 
the cath. of Amiens, 151 (cut), nave 
buttress next the transept, 151 1 , facade, 
179 (plate) ; cath. of Reims, apse, 151 
(cut), facade, 180. 

Of Italian churches, 282, 283 ; ch. of Sta. 
Maria della Spina, 283 ; ch. of S. Fermo 
of Verona, 283. 
Pisa, the sculptors of, 411, 412. 

Cathedral, 26; in construction like a 
Christian Roman basilica of the earliest 
times, 428 ; compared with ch. of Ab- 
baye-aux-Dames of Caen, 428; sculp- 
ture, pulpit of the baptistery, 411, 412. 

Church of Sta. Maria della Spina, contra- 
diction in form of facade and building, 
279, 283 ; pinnacles, 283 ; sculpture, 410. 



Pisano, Andrea, sculptures of the cam- 
panile of Florence, 412. 
Giovanni, 272; sculptures at Orvieto, 

412. 
Niccola, 379, 411, 412; sculptures of the 
pulpit in the baptistery of Pisa, 411. 

Plan, general, of a Gothic church, 18; of 
English churches, 234. 

Plinths. See Bases. 

Pointed architecture, not necessarily a dis- 
tinct style, 7. 
French. See Gothic architecture, French. 
English, German, Italian, Spanish. See 
English, German, Italian, Spanish 
pointed architecture. 

Poissy, church of St. Louis, character and 
date, 55 1 , 85 ; vaulting compared with 
ch. of St. Denis, 85; arch mouldings, 
331 ; bases, 85, 321 ; capitals, 85; open- 
ings, 106 1 ; piers of the nave, 55 ; 
ribs of the nave, 55, of apsidal aisles, 
85; rib profiles, 330; vaults of the nave, 
55, of apsidal aisles, 85. 

Poitiers, cathedral of, its aisles but little 
lower than the nave, 249 (cut). 

Pontigny, abbey church of, retains much of 
Romanesque character, 261 ; compared 
with ch. of San Galgano to show the 
Burgundian source of its Cistercian 
architecture, 263; buttresses, 261 ; vault- 
ing system, 261 ; great width of piers, 
261. 

Pontoise, church of St. Maclou of, date, 81 ; 
vaults and ribs of apsidal aisle and 
chapel, 81 (cut) ; use of straight diago- 
nal ribs, 81. 

Pont-sur-Yonne, church of, sexpartite vault- 
ing, 261, piers, 268. 

Porches, of cath. of Amiens, facade, 179 
(plate) ; cath. of Bourges, 179 ; cath. 
of Chartres, transept, 172; cath. of 
Prato, 272. 

Portals, sculpture of, 370-373, 375 ; divided 
by central pillars, 377 1 ; of the transept, 
172; of cath. of Chartres, 172; cath. 
of Le Mans, 369; ch. of St. Denis, 
371 ; cath. of Reims, 381 ; cath. of 
Senlis, 177. 
English, generally small, 230; of Lincoln 
cath., 229; Ripon cath., 231; Wells 
cath., 230. 
Italian, cath. of Prato, 272. 
Spanish, ch. of San Vincent of Avila, 
299; cath. of Leon, 300. 

Prato, cathedral of, east end and transept 
ends, 280; portals, 272; tower, 280; 
vaults, 272. 

Private dwellings, unpretentious in the 
Gothic period, 2. 

Profiles, Gothic, in France, 304-337 ; th^ 
finest are those of the latter part of 



INDEX 



445 



the 12th and beginning of the 13th 

centuries, 337. 
Of capitals 304-317; the early Gothic 

abacus, 315 ; the bell, 316. 
Of bases, 317-324. 
Of string-courses, 324-330. 
Of vault ribs and arch mouldings, 330- 

334- 

Of mullions and tracery, 335-337. 

English, 338-352; capitals, 338-344; 
bases, 344-347 ; string-course, 347-348 ; 
arch mouldings and vault ribs, 348- 
352- 

German, capitals, 353-355; bases, 355; 
archivolts, ribs, string-courses, and 
mullions, 355. 

Italian, 355-359; capitals, 356; bases, 
357; archivolts and ribs, 358; cornices, 
359- 
Pugin, Augustus, Specimens of Gothic Archi- 
tecture and Examples of Gothic Archi- 
tecture, 3. 

Qalb-Louzeh, church of, roof supports 

31' 2 ; openings 155 (cut). 
Quicherat, his definition of Romanesque, 

in " De l'Architecture Romane," 29; 

Melanges d' Archeologie et d'Histoire, 

117. 1 
Quintino, di S., Dell' architettura italiana 

al tempo del Longobardi, 9 1 . 

RAMEE, Hist. Generate de l'Architecture, 
2652. 

Ravenna, church of St. Vitale, vaulting 
compared with ch. of Aix-la-Chapelle, 
34 ; mullions of apsidal openings, 335. 

Reims, cathedral of, date and general form 
of construction, 138, 188; general ex- 
ternal aspect, 187-190 (plate) ; advance 
of Gothic principles in, 190 ; apse, 297 ; 
bases of the nave, 321 (cut) ; caryatid 
in pier buttress, 369 1 ; facade, 180; hood- 
mouldings, mullions, and tracery, 336; 
openings in apsidal chapels, 156, 157 
(cut) ; parapet, 188 ; transept, 172 ; 
sculpture, 409, of buttresses, 370, por- 
tals, 381, nave, 396; stained glass, 420. 
Church of St. Remi, apse, 166 (cut) ; 
apsidal chapels, 170; buttresses, 148. 

Renaissance, in France, 2; in England and 
Germany, 3 ; the architecture not of 
the people, 2. 

Revoil, Architecture Romane die Midi de la 
France, 41 1. 

Rib-profiles, 330-334; the perfected forms 
0I . 333> 334 '. influence on vaulting cap- 
ital, 334; of transverse ribs, 330-332, 
the original square form softened by 
roll mouldings, 331; diagonal ribs, 
332-334; relation of transverse and 



diagonal, 332; of cath. of Amiens, 333 
(cut), 334; ch. of St. Etienne of Beau- 
vais, aisles, 330 (cut), 332, choir, 334 
(cut) ; ch. of Berzy-le-Sec, 333 (cut) ; 
abbey ch. of Bury, aisle, 330 (cut), 333 
(cut) ; St. Hildevert of Gournay, 332 
(cut) ; cath. of Laon, 332 (cut) ; cath. of 
Lisieux, 351 ; ch. of Morienval, apse, 
33°, 33 2 (cut) ; the cath. of Noyon, 333 
(cut) ; cath. of Paris, 331 (cut), 332 
(cut), 334; ch. of St. Denis, 331 (cut), 
332 (cut) ; ch. of St.-Germain-des-Pres, 
331 ; ch. of St.-Martin-des-Champs, 
apsidal aisle, 330 (cuts) ; ch. of St. 
Germer-de-Fly, 330 (cut), 332 (cut) ; 
ch. of St. Louis of Poissy, apsidal 
aisles, 330 (cut) ; cath. of Senlis, 332 
(cut); apsidal chapels, 332, 333 (cut), 
triforium, 334 ; ch. of Taverny, transept, 
332 (cut) ; ch. of Ville-neuve-sur-Ver- 
beril, 333 (cut). 

English, multiplicity of parts, 351; con- 
tinuous curves in, 351; of Lincoln 
cathedral, 351, presbytery, 222. 

German, 355 ; of cath. of Bamberg, 238. 

Italian, 358 ; of cath. of Florence, 358 ; 
ch. of Sta. Croce of Florence, 358; 
ch. of St. Andrea of Vercelli, 265, 358. 

Spanish, 359. 
Ribs, early development of, 15, 17; gen- 
eral character in Gothic structures, 19 ; 
early structural use in dividing vault 
cells, 70; those structurally necessary 
only employed, 134; independent sys- 
tem of ribs in connection with pointed 
arch as a framework for vaulting, 62, 
this system an essential feature of 
Gothic vaulting, 92 ; supports of, 99. 

Groin, first use of, appears in ch. of St. 
Ambrogio of Milan, 37 ; use of, in 
Normandy, 46, in Ile-de-France, 47. 

Diagonal, in early structures curved in 
plan, 61 ; straight in developed Gothic, 
81 (cut) ; distinctively Gothic arrange- 
ment of, established, 83 ; supported on 
corbels, 75 (cut), 86 (cut), 99. 

Longitudinal, early use of, 63 ; supported 
on corbels, 99 (cut) ; on short shafts, 
100, 104 (cut), 117 (cut) ; stilting of, 
16, 32, 130; merged with the archivolt 
of the window, 160 (cut). 

Transverse ribs, profiles of, 330-332. 

Of cath. of Amiens, 140; cath. of Beau- 
vais, aisle, 144 (cut) ; ch. of St. 
Etienne, 52, 53, 104 (cut) ; ch. of 
Berzy-le-Sec, 68, 70, 161 ; ch. of Bethesy 
St. Pierre, aisles, 55 (cut), 63; cath. of 
Chartres, nave, 135 (cut), apse, 164 
(cut); ch. of Morienval, 62; ch. of 
Noel-St.-Martin, 63 ; cath. of Noyon, 
apse, 162 (cut), apsidal chapels, 94 



446 



INDEX 



(cut) ; cath. of Paris, apse, 163 (cut) ; 
ch. of St. Denis, apsidal aisle, 82 (cut), 
83, 84; ch. of St.-Germain-des-Pres, 
choir, 99, 100; ch. of St.-Martin-des- 
Champs, 70 (cut) ; ch. of St. Louis of 
Poissy, apsidal aisle, 85 ; ch. of St. 
Maclou of Pontoise, apsidal aisle and 
chapel, 81 (cut) ; ch. of St. Germer- 
de-Fly, apse, 74, 161 (cut), apsidal 
aisle, 72 (cuts), 73, apsidal chapel, 73 
(cut), 81 (cut), choir, 75 (cut), 76; 
cath. of Senlis, apsidal chapels, 94 
(cut) ; cath. of Sens, apsidal aisles, 86 
(cms). 

English, superfluous ribs general, 203, 
212; use of ridge rib, 203, liernes and 
Hercerons, 212; of Canterbury cath., 
choir, 196; Lichfield cath., nave, 224, 
225; Lincoln cath., aisles, 214, choir, 
203, nave, 212, 213 (cuts), presbytery, 
222; Rievaulx abbey, 210; Salisbury 
cath., nave, 216. 

German, of cath. of Bamberg, 238; cath. 
of Limburg, nave, 242, choir and apse, 
244; cath. of Magdeburg, 240; cath. of 
Speyer, 238; cath. of Worms, 238. 

Italian, all spring from the same level, 
267; cath. of Florence, 274; ch. of 
S. Ambrogio of Milan, 37. 

Spanish, of cath. of Burgos, 293 ; cath. of 
inca, 284; cath. of Toledo, 294, 

295- 
See also Vaults; Vaulting shafts ; Piers. 

Rickm.in, Attempt to discriminate the Styles 
of Architecture in England, 4 ; recog- 
nizes the decadent character of the 
perpendicular style of England, 427 s . 

Rievaulx abbey, 210; equilateral arches, 
217. 

Ringstead church, Northants, spire, 233. 

Ripon cathedral, choir and transept, date, 
210; facade and portals, 231 ; piers and 
vaulting shafts, 210, 211. 

Roman architecture, evolution of Roman- 
esque out of, 29; characteristics of, 
30; buttresses, 11; vaults, 11, 15,32. 

Roman sculpture. See Sculpture, Roman. 

Roman walls, character of, 10. 

Romanesque architecture, varieties of style, 
7; characteristics of, 15; origin and 
dsvelopment of, 29, 30, 40; definition 
of, 29; features anticipated in early 
Byzantine architecture, 33 ; Lombard 
influence apparent in, 40; sporadic 
types, 41, mixed forms, 43; fullest de- 
velopment of, illustrated in ch. of St. 
Etienne of Beauvais, 57; bases, 319; 
buttresses, II, 12 (cuts) ; string-courses, 
324 (cut) ; vaults, difficulties of con- 
struction, 16 (cut) ; walls, 11. 
Of Burgundy, principles of the Lombard 



system reproduced in, 43, 263 ; char- 
acter illustrated in nave of ch. of Veze- 
lay, 43, 44; compared with pointed 
architecture of Burgundy, 261. See 
also Burgundy. 
Of Ile-de-France, principles of the Lom- 
bard system reproduced, 43; character 
of, 50 ; use of groin ribs, 47 ; final de- 
velopment of organic Romanesque 
reached, 51 ; use of square vault with- 
out intermediate pier, 268 ; capitals, 
308. 
Of Normandy, principles of the Lombard 
system reproduced, 43; not logically 
designed, 45; early type of, illustrated 
in abbey ch. of Bernay and ch. of St. 
Gervaise of Falaise, 45 ; engaged shafts 
often structurally unimportant, 45 ; 
piers, 45, 48 (cut) ; vaults, 45, 46 ; 
groin ribs, 46 ; discussion as to source 
of alternate system of vaulting, 46 s ; 
first use of sexpartite vault, 48 ; rudi- 
mentary flying buttress, 48 ; bases, 319 ; 
capitals, 308. 
Of southern France, characteristics of, 
41 ; prominent features essentially Ro- 
man, 41. 
Of Rhenish Germany, alternate system 
of vaulting, 16 1 ; Lombard influence 
apparent in, 40, 237; does not materi- 
ally contribute towards formation of 
Gothic, 40; capitals, 353. 
See also German pointed architecture. 

Romanesque art of the nth cent, in Spain, 
284. 

Romanesque sculpture. See Sculpture, 
Romanesque. 

Rome, basilicas of Maxentius and Constan- 
tine, n (cut), 304, and other similar 
Roman works, 31. 
Flavian amphitheatre, constructive prin- 
ciple of, 10 (cut) ; engaged columns, n. 
San Stefano Rotondo, arcades of, 307. 

Romsey cathedral, arch mouldings, 348. 

Roofs, best covering for aisle vaulting, 253; 
of ch. of Sta. Croce of Florence, 271. 

Rouen, cathedral of, apse, 163. 

Rubbiani, La Chiesa di S. Francesco in 
Bologna, 267 1 . 

Ruprich-Robert, L' Eglise Ste. Trinite et 
I' Eglise St. Etienne d Caen, 13^, 49 1 ; 
L' Architecture Normande, 45 1 ; discus- 
sion in regard to introduction of alter- 
nate system of vaulting into Normandy, 
4 62. 

Raskin, Modern Painters, 3832. 

St. Albans, cathedral, arch mouldings, 348 ; 

facade, 232; length of the nave, 234. 
St. Ambrogio of Milan, church of. Set 

Milan. 



INDEX 



447 



St. Andrea of Mantua, church of. See 
Mantua. 

St. Andrea of Vercelli, ch. of. See Vercelli. 

Sainte Chapelle, profiling of set-offs of but- 
tresses, 327 (cut), hood-mouldings, 
mullions and tracery, 336. 

St. Contest (Calvados), church of, tower, 
183 (cut). 

Sta. Croce of Florence, church of. See 
Florence. 

St. Denis in Paris, church of. See Paris. 

St. Elizabeth of Marburg, church of. See 
Marburg. 

St. Evremond of Creil, ch. of. See Creil. 

St. Front of Perigueux, church of. See 
Perigueux. 

San Galgano, church of, shows trace of 
Burgundian influence, 262, illustrated 
by comparison with abbey ch. of Pon- 
tigny, 262, 263 (cut) ; piers and but- 
tresses, 263 ; vaulting system, 263, 266, 
267. 

St. Germain-des-Pres in Paris, church of. 
See Paris. 

St. Germer-de-Fly, abbey church of, 70-80; 
Gothic features confined to interior, 79 ; 
advance of Gothic principles in, 190; 
influence on architecture of its vicinity, 
103; abaci of the apse, 75; apse, 74 
(plate), 161 (cut); bases, 320 (cut); 
rudimentary flying buttresses, 14 1 , 78, 
79 (cut) ; capitals of the apse, 75, 312 
(cut); corbels, 75 (cut), 99; date of 
east end, 71, 102 ; nave, date, 102 ; open- 
ings of the apsidal chapel, 74, of the 
triforium,77 (plate), 78, 155; piers and 
vaulting shafts of apsidal aisle, 72 (cut), 
73 (cut), of the apse. 74 (cut), 75 (cut), 
of the choir, 75 (cut), 76, 99, of the 
nave, 102 ; ribs of the apse, 74, 161 (cut) , 
of the apsidal aisle, 72 (cuts) , 73, of the 
apsidal chapel, 73 (cut), 81 (cut), of the 
choir, 75 (cut), 76; rib-profiles, 332; 
sculpture of capitals of the choir, 386, 
string-course, 328, clerestory string of 
the apse, 75 (cut) ; western transept, 
103; triforium gallery, 77 (cut); vaults 
of the apsidal aisle, 71, 72 (cuts), 73 
(cut), of the apsidal chapel, 73 (cut), of 
the apse, 74, 161 (cut), of the choir, 76, 
102, of the triforium gallery, 77 (cut). 

St. Gervais of Falaise, church of. See 
Falaise. 

St. Hildevert of Gournay, church of. See 
Gournay. 

San Isidoro, church of, towers, 302. 

St. Leu d'Esserent, abbey church of, date, 
68, 188 ; general external aspect, 187-189 
(plate); abacus (134); apse, 163; ap- 
sidal aisle, 170 (cut) ; buttresses, 146 
(cut), 147 (cut); capitals, 310; clere- 



story, 131, 132 (cut), 155 (cut); mul- 
lions, 33s ; openings of the nave, 155 
(cut) ; piers and vaulting shafts of the 
nave, 134; rib-profiles, 330, 331; roof, 
189 1 ; spire, 183; vaults of porch gal- 
lery, 68. 

St. Louis of Poissy, church of. See Poissy. 

St. Maclou of Pontoise, church of. See Pon- 
toise. 

Santa Maria de Irache, church of, no or- 
ganic character externally, 290; capi- 
tals, 290; ribs and vaulting shafts, 290; 
transepts, 301. 

Sta. Maria della Spina in Pisa, church of. 
See Pisa. 

Sta. Maria Novella of Florence, church of. 
See Florence. 

Sta. Maria of Cosmedin, church of. See 
Cosmedin. 

St. Martin-des-Champs in Paris, church of. 
See Paris. 

St. Martin of Laon, church of. See Laon. 

St. Martin of Segovia, church of. See Se- 
govia. 

St. Martin of Tours, church of, 202. 

San Martino, church of, near Viterbo, shows 
trace of Burgundian influence, 262; 
piers, 268. 

St. Mary, New Shoreham, church of. See 
New Shoreham. 

S. Michele of Pavia, church of. See Pavia. 

St. Nazaire of Carcassonne, church of. 
See Carcassonne. 

Saint-Paul, Anthyme, Viollet-le-Duc et 
son Systhne Archeologique, 55 1 , 85 ; 
on date of cath. of Sens and ch. of St. 
Denis, 861 2. 

SS. Peter and Paul of Neuweiler, church 
of. See Neuweiler. 

St. Pierre of Chartres, church of. See 
Chart res. 

San Stefano Rotondo at Rome, arcades, 
3°7- 

St. Vaast de Longmont, church of, soire, 
183. 

St. Vincenzo in Prato of Milan, church of. 
See Milan. 

St. Yitale of Ravenna, church of. See 
Ravenna. 

Salamanca, cathedral of, 284-289; system 
of nave corresponds with contempo- 
raneous Burgundian design, 2S4 (cut) ; 
extraordinary massiveness throughout, 
284; great height of the ground-story 
piers, 286; bases, 359; capitals, 286, 
359; dome, date of, 288, approaches 
the nature of a Gothic vault, 2S7 (cut), 
exterior compared with early Gothic 
spires of France, 287, 28S, 202 ; masonry 
of vaulting, 285; ribs, 284; vaulting 
shafts, 286 ; vaults, 284-286. 



44 8 



INDEX 



Sal.im.inca, new cathedral of, superfluous 
ribs, 297 ; parapeted gallery, 297. 

Salisbury cathedral, 215-218 ; date of erec- 
tion, 215; comparison with French 
buildings, 215, 217; no structural con- 
tinuity in the interior, 216; absence of 
sculpture, 408; substantially a Norman 
building, 426; arch mouldings, 349; 
buttresses, 218; capitals, 344 ; chapter- 
house, 235, openings of, 235; clerestory, 
217; facade, 230; nave, 215; pier 
arches, 217; piers, 218; ribs of the 
nave, 216; spire, 233; string-course, 
347; trifonum, 217; vaults of the nave, 
215 (cut). 

Scott, G. G., History of English Church 
Architecture, 5 1 . 

Scott, Sir Gilbert, on Gothic Architecture, 5 ; 
Lectures <"' the A'tse and Development 
of Mediaeval Architecture, 130 3 , 199 1 ; 
on stilting of the clerestory arch, 133. 

Sculpture, Burgundian, indicates an obser- 
vation of nature, 364; first to break 
away from older types of conventional 
leafage, 385 (cut). 
French Gothic, developed in the Ile-de- 
France a century before the Italian 
revival, 361 ; the earliest schools in 
southern Gaul influenced by Roman 
and Byzantine work, 360, 361, their 
classic feeling, 362 ; influence of Greek 
art on, 362; their want of original in- 
vention, 363 ; early schools of Bur- 
gundy, 364; sources of stimulus and 
guidance to early sculptors of the Ile-de- 
France, 364; favourable conditions in 
the I le-de- France, 365; sculpture of the 
12th cent., 366-373, unrivalled in senti- 
ment, 371 , 374, statues neither employed 
as caryatids nor placed in niches, 369, 
yet a part of the architectural composi- 
tion, 370, the sculpture of this period at 
its best in the lintel of the cath. of 
Senlis, 373; sculpture of the early 13th 
cent., 273, comparison with Greek art, 

23, 375, 376, cath. of Paris most impor- 
tant in sculpture of this period, 374; 
the second half of the 13th cent., 377 ; 
character of surfaces, 379 ; expression of 
thought and emotion a leading motive 
in Gothic sculpture, 379; physical 
beauty aimed at also but subordinated 
to moral and spiritual ends, 380; the 
monstrous and grotesque, 381; Ro- 
manesque imagery early rejected, 381 ; 
animal forms introduced, 382; their 
truth to nature and ornamental quality, 

24, 383 ; leafage, 383 ; Romanesque 
designs, except the Corinthianesque 
leafage, discarded for capitals, 386 ; the 
influence of nature traced, 386; best 



Gothic capitals those of the 12th cent., 
389; quick sympathy with nature, 389; 
leafage of the successive seasons re- 
produced in successive styles of sculp- 
ture, 389, 396; special plant forms em- 
ployed, 389; skill in execution, 390; 
the best qualities shown in the triforium 
of the nave of Paris, 390 ; naturalism 
carried almost too far in the chapel of 
the catechists, 391 (cut) ; running leaf 
patterns, 393 ; orderly sequence without 
formality, 394; over-naturalism domi- 
nant after the middle of 13th cent., 395 ; 
convention in, 396; importance of 
breadth, 397; use of colour, 398; of 
capitals, 385-392 ; of the facade, 374- 
379; of portals, 370-373.375- 
Of cath. of Amiens, south portal of 
western facade, 377, 378, triforium 
string-course, 393 (cut), cornice of ex- 
terior of nave, 393, choir capital, 396; 
ch. of St. Trophime at Aries, cloister, 

366 (cut), 368; cath. of Autun, portal, 
364, capital of the nave, 385 (cut), 
Abbaye-aux-Dames of Caen, capitals, 
386 (cut) ; cath. of Chartres, 360, west 
front, 367-369 (cut), central portal, 382, 
porches, 396; ch. of Notre Dame du 
Port of Clermont-Ferrand, 362; ch. of 
Notre Dame of Corbeil, 369; cath. of 
.Laon, capitals of triforium 314 (cut), 
387, 392; cath. of Le Mans, south 
portal, 369; cath. of Nevers, 396 ; cath. 
of Noyon, capitals of the choir, 386, 
string-course, 395; of cath. of Paris, 
buttresses, 369, 370, transept facades, 
370, south door of west front, 370, west 
facade, 375, 376, 383 (cut), portal of the 
Virgin, 370, 375 (cut), 378, 412, central 
portal, 376, portal of south transept, 377, 
portal of north transept, 378 (cut), 402, 
grotesque figure in hood-moulding, 
383 (cut), capitals, 386, of the triforium, 
312 (cut), 387, 388 (cuts), 390, of the 
chapel of the catechists, 391 (cut), run- 
ning leaf ornaments of western facade, 
393 (cut), of the Port Rouge, 396; ch. 
of St. Denis, 360, north transept, 366, 

367 (cut), tympanums of west portal, 
371 ; cath. of Reims, buttresses, 370, 
portals, 381, nave, 396; ch. of St. 
Germer-de-Fly, 386; cath. of Senlis, 
lintel, 371-373 (plate), central portal, 
382 (cut), capitals, 385 (cuts), of the 
triforium, 387 (cut) ; cath. of Soissons, 
capitals of choir, 129 (cut), 387; ch. of 
Vezelay, portal, 364, capitals of the 
porch, 385. 

See also Gothic sculpture. 
English, 400-408 ; rare in the 12th cent., 
400 ; early examples of figure sculpture, 



INDEX 



449 



400; 13th cent, figure sculpture of Wells, 
400, 402, its want of relation to the 
structure of the building, 401 ; want of 
delicacy and refinement, 402 ; the angel 
choir of Lincoln, 402 ; foliate sculpture, 
404, its artificial conventionality, 404, 
much expression of natural beauty not- 
withstanding artificial peculiarities, 406 ; 
Anglo-Norman and French characteris- 
tics combined in the foliate sculpture 
of Wells cath., 407; the imaginary and 
grotesque less common than in France, 
407; sculpture almost wanting in many 
important buildings, 408 ; of Ely cath., 
the Prior's gateway, 400 ; Lincoln cath., 
west front, 400 (cut), the angel choir 
and other figure sculpture, 403, capitals 
of Bishop Hugh's choir and transept, 
405 (cut), sculpture of the nave in- 
ferior, 406 (cut) ; cath. of Southwell, 
404 (cut) ; Wells cath., west front, 400, 
402, capitals, 407. 

German, 408, 409 ; largely confined to 
works on a small scale, general absence 
of figure sculpture, late Gothic influence, 
408 ; lack of monumental qualities and 
architectural relationship, realism of, 
foliate sculpture, 409; of Cologne and 
Strasburg caths., 409 ; the Liebfiauen- 
kirche of Trier, 408. 

Greek, its likeness to nature, 23 ; com- 
pared with French Gothic, 23 ; its in- 
fluence on Gothic, 24. 

Italian, 410 ; its revival subsequent to the 
development of the Gothic school in 
France, 361, 410 ; the production of in- 
dividual sculptors, not of a school or 
guild, 410; want of connection with 
architecture, 410; mingling of Gothic 
and Roman elements, 411; the classic 
elements in the sculptures of Pisa com- 
pared with those in French Gothic 
sculpture, 411 ; French Gothic models 
followed in foliate sculpture, 412; of 
cath. of Florence, the campanile, 411, 
door jambs, 412, baptistery gates, 413, 
Ducal palace, older capitals, 413; cath. 
of Orvieto, reliefs, 412 ; cath. of Pisa, 
pulpit of the baptistery, 411, 412. 

Roman, influence on the sculpture of 
southern Gaul, on Italian work, 411, 412. 

Romanesque, its imagery, 381 ; orna- 
mental forms derived from Roman and 
Byzantine work, 384 ; types of ornament 
for capitals, 385. 

Spanish, copied from French models, 413 ; 
ch. of San Vincent of Avila, portals, 413 ; 
cath. of Burgos, transept portals, 413; 
choir, 414; ch. of St. Esteban, portal, 
414; cath. of Leon, west portal, 414; 
ch. of St. Martin of Segovia, 413. 
2G 



See also Capitals. 

Secular builders, begin to take a leading 
part in architectural works, 87, 88. 

Segovia, ch. of St. Martin of, sculpture, 413. 

Selby Abbey, facade, 232. 

Senlis, cathedral of, the interior Gothic, the 
exterior Romanesque, 98 ; advance of 
Gothic principles in, 190; represents 
perfection in Gothic masonry, 96; 
originally constructed without transept, 
90' 2 ; abacus of the choir and nave, 313, 
315 (cut) ; bases, 320 (cut) ; buttresses, 
99, 178 (cut) ; capitals of the apse, 
308-311 (cut), of the choir, 92, 99, 310, 
311, 313, 353, 385 (cuts) , of the triforium, 
387 (cut) ; choir, 94 (cuts) ; eastern 
portion, 188 1 ; facade, 176 (cut), 177; 
openings of the apsidal chapels, 94, 
159; piers and vaulting shafts of the 
choir, 91, 92, 96 (cut), 310, 311; portal, 
western facade, 177, 282 (cut) ; ribs of 
the apsidal chapels, 94 (cut) ; rib-pro- 
files, 332; vaults of the choir, 91, of the 
apsidal chapels, 94, of the nave, 101 ; 
sculpture of the lintel, 371-373 (plate); 
of central portal, 382 (cut) ; spire, 185 
(plate) ; string-course, 326, 328. 
Church of St. Frambourg, neglect and 
abuse of, 101 2 . 

Sens, cathedral of, piers of the apsidal aisle, 
86, 87 (cut), of the nave, 119; ribs and 
vaults of apsidal aisle, 86 (cuts), of the 
apse, 163 ; vaulting shafts of the nave, 
119 ; transept, 172. 

Sens, William of, architect of the choir of 
Canterbury, 196, 205. 

Sevilla, cathedral of, nave vaulting, 297 ; 
parapeted gallery, 297. 

Shaft, volume reduced in Gothic architec- 
ture, 18 ; engaged, used illogically in some 
Norman buildings, 45; often mono- 
lithic, in France after the nth cent., 308. 
See Piers ; Ribs ; Vaulting shafts. 

Sharpe, Edmund, The Seven Periods of 
English Church Architecture, 4 4 ; on 
date of ch. of St. Mary, New Shoreham, 
209 K 

Siena, cathedral of, want of Gothic charac- 
ter, 273 ; facade, 279 ; openings, 277, 
278; pinnacles, 282; transept ends, 280. 

Soissons, cathedral of, date, 128' 2 ; abacus, 

128 (cut) ; bases, 322 (cut) ; buttresses, 
149 (cut); capitals, 129 (cut), 387; 
clerestory, 166 ; openings, 166 ; para- 
pet, 188; piers, 128 (cut); sculpture, 

129 (cut), 387; transept, 172. 
Southwell minster, arch mouldings, 348; 

capitals, 344; sculpture, north transept, 

404 (cut). 
Spalato, palace of Diocletian, capitals, 304. 
Spalato, arcade of, 31. 



45° 



INDEX 



Spanish pointed architecture, 284-303 ; 
brought in by the Cistercian and Clu- 
niac monks, 293 ; not an original style, 
292, 297,303; buildings modelled from 
those of southern and central Gaul, 
284, 290, 293, 303, 359 ; in the 12th cent., 
284; eany buildings, 284-293, apses 
probably older than the naves, 290, 
organic systems of, 291 ; great height 
of ground-story piers, 286 ; use of the 
barrel vault, 292; the complete Gothic 
of France taken as a model in the sec- 
ond quarter of the 13th cent., 293 ; later 
buildings depart from Gothic form, 
297; imitation of English fan vaulting 
and the parapeted gallery of Italian 
churches, 297; influence of climate on 
style, 298 ; east ends, 301 ; facades, 298- 
301 ; French forms followed closely in 
few cases, 298 ; openings, 298 ; profiles 
mainly Gothic, 359; no true Gothic 
spire, 302; towers, 302; tracery, 298; 
transepts, 301. 

Speyer, cathedral, date of, 237 1 ; a Roman- 
esque building, 40, 237, 238; piers and 
ribs, 238; vaults, 237. 

Spires in French churches, 182-187; diffi- 
culties in adapting its octagonal plan 
to the square substructure, 183 ; early 
use of dormers, 183; strengthened by 
squinches, 186 ; of the ch. of Chamant, 
183 (cut), 184; cath. of Chartres, 184 
(cut) ; ch. of St. Leu d'Fsserent, 183; 
ch. of St. Vaast de Longmont, 183; 
cath. of Senlis, 185 (plate) ; abbey ch. 
of the Trinity at Vendome, 184; ch. of 
Vernouillet, 185 ; ch. of San Fermo 
Maggiore of Verona, 282. 
English, rare in early pointed architecture, 
233; peculiarity of English construc- 
tion, 233. 
German, 256; adjustment of, to towers, 
257 ; of cath. of Freiburg, 258 ; cath. 
of Gelnhausen, 257 ; ch. of St. Eliza- 
beth of Marburg, 257 (cut) ; of the 
Lorenzkirche, Nuremberg, 257. 

Squinches, 117. 

Stained glass in Gothic buildings, 22; effect 
on the character of openings, 160. 
French, 415-419; its developed style 
peculiar to 12th and 13th cent. Gothic, 
417; limitations due to the nature of 
the materials employed, 417; distin- 
guished from wall painting, 417; the 
mediaeval designer adhered strictly to 
the conventions proper to his art, 418 ; 
heraldic treatment of colour, 418, 420; 
modern attempts to give the art a wider 
range, 418; of ch. of St. Denis and 
cath. of Chartres, 419, 420; of cath. of 
Paris and Sainte Chapelle, 420 ; noth- 



ing peculiar in other countries, 423 ; 
fine examples in England and Ger- 
many, but mainly dependent on France, 
423- 

Statues, neither used as caryatids nor set 
in niches in Gothic architecture, 
369- 

Stilting of the longitudinal arches of a vault, 
16, 32; its real significance is in con- 
centrating the vault thrusts, 130-132 
(cuts) ; of the longitudinal rib in the 
cath. of Amiens, 140 ; cath. of Beauvais, 
144 (cut) ; cath. of Chartres, 136. 

Strasburg cathedral, date, 252; design has 
much of Gothic character, 252; capitals, 
355; facade, 256; opening* of the 
clerestory, 252; sculpture, 409. 

Street, Gothic Architecture in Spain, 2gi, 
296, 298. 

String-courses, Gothic, 324-330; change 
from the flat to the sloping form, 324, 
325 ; becomes a drip moulding, 325 
(cut); important function of, 326 ; be- 
comes an ornamental feature, 326 ; in- 
terior mouldings, 327-330; arrangement 
of triforium shafts in reference to, 329; 
of cath. of Amiens, 326 (cut), 329 (cut), 
sculpture of, 393; ch. of St. Etienne of 
Beauvais, 328 (cut) ; ch. of St. Pierre 
of Chartres, 326 (cut), 328 (cut), 329; 
ch. of St. Evremond of Creil, 324, 325 
(cut), 326; abbey ch. of Longpont, 
328 (cut) ; abbey ch. of Morienval, 325 
(cut) ; cath. of Noyon, 395; cath. of 
Paris, cornice, 326 (cut), triforium, 329 
(cut) ; ch. of St. Germer-de-Fly, clere- 
story of apse, 75 (cut), triforium, 328 
(cut); cath. of Senlis, 325 (cut), 326, 
328 (cut). 
English, 347-348; made up of curves, 
347 ; beak moulding, 347 ; use of the 
corbel-table, 348 ; of the interior, 348 ; 
of Lincoln cath., exterior of choir, 347 ; 
interior, 348; Salisbury cath., 347; 
Wells cath., 347 ; beak moulding of 
Glastonbury cath., 347. 
German, 355. 

Italian and Spanish, 359; of ch. of St. 
Francis of Assisi, 359 ; cath. of Flor- 
ence, 359. 

Style, architectural, 7. 

Sully, Maurice de, founder of cath. of Paris, 

371. 

Superfluous ribs general in English build- 
ings, 203, 212; use in later pointed 
buildings of Spain, 297. 
See also Ridge ribs ; Lierncs ; Tierce- 
rons. 

Symbolism of animal forms in Gothic sculp- 
ture, 383. 

Svria, central, characteristics of architecture 



INDEX 



451 



of, 30, 31 ; its early departure from 
Roman and approach to Romanesque 
principles, 30; influence upon Roman 
art of the west, 31 ; influence of eastern 
architecture upon, 31 ; absence of 
vaulting over naves, 31. 

Tarragona, cathedral of, 290 ; barrel 
vaults, 292. 

Taverny, church of, rib profiles of the tran- 
sept, 332. 

Technical skill, generally accompanied by 
decline in expressional power, 372, 374. 

Temple Church in London. See London. 

Thierry, A., Lettres sur I' Hist, de France, 
8 7 1. 

Tiercerons, in Lincoln cathedral nave, 212 
(cut), presbytery, 222; in cath. of To- 
ledo, 294; new cath. of Salamanca, 297. 

Tintern Abbey, equilateral arches, 217. 

Toledo, cathedral of, modelled after the 
French Gothic, 294; buttresses, 296; 
clerestory openings, 296, 298; facade, 
300; piers, 295; ribs, 294, 295 ; towers, 
302 ; has no triforium, 296, 298. 

Toscanella, church of Sta. Maria, facade 
opening, 278!. 
Ch. of San Pietro, facade opening, 278 1 . 

Toulouse, school of sculpture, 363. 

Tournus, church of St. Philibert illustrates 
a sporadic type of Romanesque archi- 
tecture, 41 ; vaults, 42, 194. 

Tours, church of St. Martin, 202. 

Towers, of the Gothic fa9ade, 173 ; estab- 
lished in Romanesque period, 173. 
Of ch. of Abbaye-aux-Hommes at Caen, 
174 (cut) ; ch. of Morienval, 182 (cut) ; 
ch.ofSt. Contest (Calvados), 183 (cut) ; 
abbey ch. of the Trinity at Vendome, 
184. 
Of English churches, 232 ; general pro- 
vision for a central tower at crossing 
of nave and transept, 232; of Lincoln 
cath., 232 (cut). 
Of German churches, Gelnhausen, 256, 
257; Heiligenstadt, 237; cath. of Lim- 
burg, 257; Lorenzkirche, Nuremberg, 
257- 
Of Italian churches, seldom incorporated 
with the church edifice, a building of 
several stories, 280; cath. of Florence, 
281 ; ch. of St. Andrea of Mantua, 282; 
the Scaligeri at Verona, 282 (cut). 
Of Spanish churches, ch. of San Vincent 

of Avila, 299; cath. of Leon, 302. 
See also Spires ; Facades. 

Tracery, early instance of, 153 (cut) ; de- 
velopment of, 157-160 ; necessity of, in 
large openings, 160; profiles, 335; of 
cath. of Amiens, 336; cath. of Paris, 
clerestory, 153 (cut), 158, 159; cath. of 



Reims, apsidal openings, 157 (cut), 336. 

In Italian chs., 270, 278; of cath. of 
Arezzo, 271 ; ch. of Fassanova, 278. 

See also Mul lions; Openings. 
Transept chapels, 172; of caths. of Laon 
and Sens, 172; ch. of Sta. Croce at 
Florence, 271. 
Transept ends, 

Of French churches, 172. 

Of English churches, 228 ; of Beverley 
minster, Lincoln cath., Worcester cath., 
228. 

Of German chs., 256 ; ch. of St. Elizabeth, 
of Marburg, 256. 

Of Italian churches, 280; ch. of St. Fran- 
cis of Bologna, Sta. Maria Novella, and 
cath. of Siena, 280. 

Of Spanish churches, cath. of Burgos, 301 ; 
cath. of Leon, 301. 
Transepts of French churches, 171 ; two, 
common in English churches, 234; of 
cath. of Amiens, 172 ; cath. of Chartres, 
172; cath. of Laon, 171, 172; cath. of 
Noyon, 171; caths. of Paris, Reims, 
Sens, Soissous, 172. 
Transitional architecture defined, 56. 
Trier, Liebfrauenkirche of, date, 245 ; nave 
and transept of equal length, 245; im- 
perfectly Gothic, 247; apse, 248, 266; 
capitals, 246, 354; piers, 246 (cut); 
sculpture of portal, 408; triforium, 245; 
vaulting shafts, 246 (cut), 248. 
Triforium, enclosed by masonry in French 
buildings, 161 ; arrangement of shafts 
in reference to the string-course, 329; 
bases, 321; of the cath. of Amiens, 
160, 253 ; cath. of Beauvais, choir, and 
apse, 253; ch. of St. Etienne, 105, 106; 
ch. of Abbaye-aux-Dames at Caen, 219, 
220 (cut). 

English, usually open to the aisle roof, 
192; of Lincoln cath., 208; Malmes- 
bury abbey, 192; Salisbury cath., 217; 
Wells cath., 219, 220 (cut). 

German, Cologne cath., 252, 253 ; cath. 
of Limburg, 243 ; Liebfrauenkirche of 
Trier, 245. 

Italian, cath. of Lucca, 276. 

Spanish, cath. of Burgos, 294. 
Triforium gallery, early Gothic, 77 (cut) ; 
of cath. of Noyon, 89, 107; of ch. of St. 
Germer-de-Fly, 77 (cut), 78. 
Triforium openings, 106 1 ; of Poissy, 106 1 ; 
ch. of St. Germer-de-Fly, 77 (cut); 
caths. of Chartres, Paris, Reims, Sois- 
sous, 160. 
Triforium string. See String-courses. ' 
Trinity, abbey church of the, at Vendome, 

tower and spire, 1S4. 
Tudela, cathedral, apsidal vault of primitive 
Gothic form, 290. 



452 



INDEX 



1 



VaSari, Lives, etc., 265, on Italian and 

Byzantine art, 360, 361. 
Vaulting shafts, general character of in Gothic 
structures, 19, go, 92, 99, 129; uniting of 
clerestory and triforium, 160 (cut), 166; 
coupled, 290; of the cath. of Amiens, 
140 (cut) ; cath. of Bourges, 118; ch. of 
Abbaye-aux-Hommes, 48 (cut) ; the 
cath. of Chartres, nave, 137; Notre 
Dame of Dijon, 119; ch. of Gonesse, 
119; cath. of Laon, 117 (cut), 128 (cut) ; 
ch. of Mantes, 116 (cut) ; cath. of 
Meaux, 120 (cut) ; cath. of Noyon, 
nave, 107 ; cath. of Paris, choir, 113, 114 
(cuts), nave, 115 (cuts), 116, 125; 
of ch. of Pontigny, 261 ; of ch. of St. 
Germer-de-Fly, of the apsidal aisle, 72 
(cut), 73 (cut), of the apse, 74 (cut), 
75 (cut), of the choir, 75 (cut), 76, 99, 
of the nave, 102; cath. of Senlis, choir, 
91, 92; cath. of Sens, nave, 119, 196; 
cath. of Soissons, 128 (cut). 

Of Canterbury cath., choir, 196 (cut), 
207 (cut) ; Chichester cath., 199 ; Lich- 
field cath., nave, 225; Lincoln cath., 
choir, 204-208 (cut), nave, 213, aisles, 
214, presbytery, 222, 223; Malmes- 
bury abbey, 191 (cut) ; ch. of St. Mary, 
New Shoreham, nave, 209 ; Ripon cath., 
choir, 210, transept, 211. 

Of cath. of Bamberg, 239, 240 ; ch. of 
St. Gereon of Cologne, 244; cath. of 
Limburg, 243; cath. of Magdeburg, 
240; Liebfrauenkirche of Trier, 246 
(cut). 

Of cath. of Florence, 274; ch. of San 
Galgano, 263. 

Of cath. of Burgos, 293 ; cath. of Sala- 
manca, 286; ch. of Santa Maria de 
Irache, 290. 

See also Piers; Ribs; Vaults; Abacus; 
Capitals. 
Vaults, Byzantine compared with Roman, 
32, 36 ; difficulties of construction over 
oblong compartments, 16 (cut), 62, 64, 
66, 76 ; effect of the introduction of the 
pointed arch upon, 15, 17 (cut) ; in 
Gothic architecture always both stilted 
and domed, 17 ; general character in 
Gothic buildings, 19; first important 
innovations in, 31 ; divided into cells 
by ribs, 70; crowns of the ribs and 
arches, 65 1 , 130; irregularity of surface, 
in, 130; character of vaults in more 
advanced Gothic, 129; twisting of the 
vault surfaces, 130, 296; the thrusts 
concentrated on the piers by stilting of 
the longitudinal rib, 132 (cut), 140; 
only constructively necessary ribs em- 
ployed, 134; use of square vault with- 
out the intermediate pier, 64 (cut), 



268 ; primitive Norman vaults of Peter- 
borough cath. compared with vaults 
of ch. of St. Etienne of Beauvais, 211 
(cut) ; barrel, 12, in Spanish churches, 
292; half-barrel, 12. 

Groined, Byzantine compared with 
Roman, 32, 36; groins elliptical in 
Roman, semicircular in Byzantine 
vaults, 32; alternate arrangement, 38 
(cut), 268, discussion as to introduction 
of, into Normandy, 46' 2 ; uniform ar- 
rangement, 38 (cut) ; use of the Roman, 
in triforium gallery of St. Germer-de- 
Fly, 77 (cut), 78. 

Domical groined, an innovation of Byzan- 
tine construction, 32, which made the 
Gothic style possible, 309; removes the 
restriction of vaulting to square areas, 
32; early use of, in Lombard archi- 
tecture, 36; groin ribs introduced, 37. 

Quadripartite, development of, 37, 76; 
contemporaneous with sexpartite, 108, 
no; earliest and most prevalent form 
of Gothic vault, 108 ; of general use in 
the 13th cent., 129. Quinquepartite 
vault, 94 (cut). 

Sexpartite, characteristics of, 48, evolved 
in ch. of Abbaye-aux-Hommes at Caen, 
48, 91 ; contemporaneous with quadri- 
partite, 108, no. Tripartite, 76. 

Of ch. of Aix-la-Chapelle, 34 (cut) ; cath. 
of Amiens, nave, 140, apse, 165 (cut) ; 
cath. of Auxerre, apse, 163; cath. of 
Beauvais, aisle, 144 (cut) ; ch. of St. 
Etienne, nave, 52, 104 (cut), aisles, 52, 
53 (cut) ; ch. of Berzy-le-Sec, 68, 70, 
161 ; Bethesy St. Pierre, aisles, 55 (cut) ; 
ch. of Bury, aisle, 64 (cuts) ; ch. of 
Abbaye-aux-Dames, 12, 13, 14 (cut), 
choir, 46; ch. of Abbaye-aux-Hommes, 
12, 13 (cut), nave, 46, 47, 48 (cut), 92; 
of ch. of St. Sophia, 32 ; of cath. of 
Chartres, apse, 164 (cut), nave, 135 
(cut) ; of cath. of Le Mans, apsidal aisle, 
35, 170 ; of cath. of Mainz, 238 ; of ch. of 
S. Ambrogio of Milan, 36-38 ; of ch. of 
Montreal, 261 ; of ch. of Morienval, nave 
aisle, 50, 53; apsidal aisle, 59 (cut), 
60, 61, 62 (cut) ; of ch. of Notre-Dame- 
en-Vaux, apsidal aisle, 34 ; of cath. of 
Noyon, nave, 107; apse, 162 (cut), 
apsidal chapels, 94; of cath. of Paris, 
apse, 163 (cut), choir, no, in, 163, 
nave, no, in ; of ch. of St. Denis, apsidal 
aisle and chapels, 82 (cut), €3, 84 (cut) 
85; nave, 142; of ch. of St. Martin-des- 
Champs, apse, 70 (cut); of abbey ch.of 
Pontigny, 261 ; of ch. of St. Vitale of Ra- 
venna, 34; of ch. of St. Remi of Reims, 
apse, 166 ; of cath. of Rouen, apse, 163 ; 
of ch. of St. Germer-de-Fly, apse, 74, 161 



INDEX 



453 



(cut), apsidal aisle, 71, 72 (cuts), 73 
(cut), apsidal chapel, 73 (cut), choir, 
76, 102, triforium gallery, 77 (cut) ; of ch. 
of St. George, Bocherville, 46; of ch. of 
St. Leu d'Esserent, apse, 163, porch 
gallery, 68 (cut) ; of ch. of St. Louis of 
Poissy, aisle and nave, 54, 55, apsidal 
aisle, 85; of ch. of St. Maclou of Pontoise, 
apsidal aisle and chapel, 81 (cut) ; 
of ch. of S. Michele of Pavia, 36 ; of ch. 
of St. Nicholas, choir, 46; of ch. of St. 
Philibert of Tournus, 42, 194 ; of cath. of 
Senlis, choir, 91, apsidal chapels, 94, 
nave, 101 ; of cath. of Sens, apsidal 
aisles, 86 (cuts). 

English, first step towards fan vaulting, 
212, 213 ; polygonal chapter-houses, 
235 ; absence of vaulting in the smaller 
village churches, 235 ; primitive Nor- 
man vaults of Peterborough cath. com- 
pared with vaults of ch. of St. Etienne 
of Beauvais, 211 (cut) ; of Canterbury 
cath., choir, 196; Fountains abbey, 
aisle, 194 (cut) ; Kirkstall abbey, 195 ; 
Lincoln cath., aisles, 214, choir, 202- 
204 (cuts) , east transept, 204 1 , nave, 212, 
213 (cuts), presbytery, 222; Malmes- 
bury abbey, aisle, 191 (cut) ; Salisbury 
cath., nave, 215 (cut). 

Of cath. of Bamberg, 238, 239; Cologne 
cath., 252 ; ch. of St. Gereon of Cologne, 
244; cath. of Freiburg, 251; cath. of 
Limburg, 242-244 ; cath. of Magdeburg, 
240; ch. of SS. Peter and Paul at 
Neuweiler, 250; cath. of Speyer, 238; 
Strasburg cath., 252; cath. of Worms, 
238. 

Of ch. of St. Francis of Assisi, 263 ; ch. 
of Sta. Croce at Florence, apse, 271, 
272; ch. of San Galgano, 263, 266; ch. 
of Sta. Maria Novella, 267, 268 ; ch. of 
the Frari, Venice, 272. 

Of ch. of San Vincent of Avila, 289 ; cath. 
of Salamanca, 284, 286 ; cath. of Sevilla, 
297 ; cath. of Tarragona, 292. 

See also Ribs ; Vaulting shafts. 

Roman, n, 15; compared with Byzan- 
tine, 32, 36. 
Venddme, abbey church of the Trinity, tower 

and spire, 184. 
Venice, church of the Frari, use of plain 
round columns, 272; facade, 279 ; vaults 
of the apse, 272. 

Ducal palace, sculpture of the older capi- 
tals, 413. 
Vercelli, church of St. Andrea, origin of 
architectural style, 264; lack of Gothic 
character, 265, east end, 280 ; piers, 265 ; 
profiles, 265, 358; vaulting system, 264, 
265 ; walls, 265. 
Verneilh, Felix de, L Architecture Byzantine 



en France, 42 2 ; Le Premier dcs Monu- 
ments Gothiques, 55 1 , 85. 

Vernouillet, church of, Seine-et-Oise, spire, 
185 ; comparative height of nave and 
aisles, 249 1 . 

Verona, church of Sta. Anastasia, use of 
plain round columns, 272. 
Church of S. Fermo, pinnacles, 283. 
Scaligeri, the, tower, 282 (cut). 
Church of St. Stephano, earliest extant 

instance of apsidal aisles, 35. 
Church of San Fermo Maggiore, spire, 

282. 
Church of San Zenone, opening, west 
front, 278 1 . 

Veruela, abbey church of, apsidal vault of 
primitive Gothic form, 291. 

Vezelay, abbey church of, structural char- 
acter, 43, 44; compared with abbey ch. 
of Pontigny, 261 ; capitals, 385 ; sculp- 
ture of portal, 364, of porch, 385. 

Vicenza, church of San Felice, 35. 

Viery, M. J., L Architecture Romane dans 
VAncien Diocese de Macon, 43-. 

Ville-neuve-sur-Verberie (Oise), church of, 
rib-profiles, 333. 

Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire Raisonne de 
V 'Architecture Francaise, 7 ; Voute, 32 1 , 
75 1 , 170 1 ; drawings of St. Louis of 
Poissy, 8s 4 ; Transept, 103 2 ; Construction, 
108 1 , 113 1 , 142 1 , 159 1 , 182I; Cathedrale, 
117 1 , 151 1 ; Filter, 128I; Balustrade, 
189 1 ; Capiteau, 304 1 ; Bandeau, 328 1 ; 
Profit, 33 2 1 ; Sculpture, 363 1 , 364 1 , 368 1 ; 
Niche, 370 1 ; Porte, 375 1 ; Animaux, 
382. 

Visher, Peter, sculpture of, 409. 

Vitet, L., Notre-Dame de Noyon, 87 1 . 

Von Bezold, Die Kirchliche Baukunst des 
Abendlandes, 240. 

Wall openings. See Openings; Trifo- 
rium openings. 
Walls, gradual reduction of in Gothic archi- 
tecture, 18 ; general character in Gothic 
buildings, 20, 153; practically dispensed 
with in developed style, 160. 
Roman, 10. 
Romanesque, n. 
Walpole, Horace, his interest in Gothic, 

3- 
Wells cathedral, 218-221 ; date of construc- 
tion, 218; vaulting and structural rela- 
tions, 218 (cut) ; compared with the 
ch. of Abbaye-aux-Dames at Caen, 219 
(cut) ; abacus, 344; square plinths and 
griffes of bases in north porch, 346(cut) ; 
capitals of the transept and east end, 
343, 344 ; facade, 230, 401 ; nave and 
transept substantially Norman, 426; 
portals, 230; sculpture, 360, of west 



454 



INDEX 



front, 400, 402, of capitals, 407 ; string- 
course, 347; triforium, 219, 220 (cut). 

Westminster Abbey, the most Gothic struc- 
ture in England, 222; apse, 226; capi- 
tals, 344 (cut), 407; east end of apsi- 
dal form, 226 ; pier arches, 217 ; absence 
of sculpture, 408. 

Whewell, W., Architectural Notes on Ger- 
man Churches, 4. 

Whitby, abbey church, Early English in 
form, but Romanesque in principle, 
210; equilateral arches, 217 ; base pro- 
files of choir of clerestory, 345. 

Willis, R., Remarks on the Architecture of 
the Middle Ages, 4 2 ; " Essay on the 
Construction of the Vaults of the Mid- 
dle Ages," 4, 130- ; Architectural His- 
tory of Canterbury Cathedral, 198 1 . 



Winchester cathedral, length of the nave 
234- 

Windows. See Openings ; Clerestory; 
Tracery ; Stained glass. 

Woillez, Eug. J., Archeologie des Monu- 
ments Religieux de I'Ancien Beauvais, 
etc., 591. 

Worcester cathedral, the smaller transept 
not true Gothic, 221 ; east end, 
tower, 232 ; transept facade, 228. 

Worms, cathedral of, 40; date, 238; vaults 
and ribs, 238. 

Wren, Sir Christopher, his taste for the 
pseudo-classic orders, 3. 

York cathedral, transept not true 
Gothic, 221; chapter-house, 235 ; tower, 
232 ; wheel window of the transept, 228. 



European Architecture 



A HISTORICAL STUDY 



RUSSELL STURGIS, A.M., Ph.D., F.A.I.A. 

President of the Fine Arts Federation of New York ; Post-President of the Architectural 

League of Netv York ; Vice-President of the National 

Sculpture Society ; etc. 



8vo. Illustrated. $4.00 



OUTLOOK 

" To the literature of architecture no American is better qualified to make 
a contribution of lasting value than Mr. Russell Sturgis." 

THE ARCHITECTS' AND BUILDERS' REVIEW 

" Mr. Sturgis tells his readers exactly what the purpose of his book is, and 
raises no expectations that are not fully realized. ... It cannot be too 
widely known or too carefully studied. . . . Nothing Mr. Sturgis can say 
on the subject of architecture can fail to be interesting and instructive. . . . 
It is not too much to say that this single work forms the best introduction to 
the serious study of European architecture ever published." 

THE INDEPENDENT 

"In Mr. Sturgis's 'European Architecture' rare good taste, simple truth,, 
and great knowledge combine to satisfy eye and mind." 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

66 Fifth Avenue, New York 



Building Superintendence 

A MANUAL FOR ARCHITECTS, STUDENTS, 
AND OTHERS INTERESTED IN BUILD- 
ING OPERATIONS AS CARRIED 
ON AT THE PRESENT 
TIME 



T. M. CLARK 

Fellow of the American Institute of Architects 



8vo. Illustrated. $3.00 



There is hardly any practical problem in construction, from building of a 
stone town hall or church to that of a wooden cottage, that is not carefully 
considered and discussed here, and the book is consequently of the greatest 
value to all who are interested in building. 



Architect, Owner, and Builder 
Before the Law 

BY 

T. M. CLARK 

Author of " Building Superintendence " 



Square 8vo. $3.00 



This book contains hundreds of references, particularly to modern cases, 
which are not given in any other work on the subject; and in a selection of 
those involving the most important technical points, the exposition of those 
points by the court has been quoted at considerable length. It is, however, 
more than a mere statement of the law, being a valuable book of reference 
for lawyers whose ability to handle building cases is hampered by their lack 
of technical knowledge of the subject. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

66 Fifth Avenue, New York 



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i«£5X 0F CONGRESS 



021 227 968 7 



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